Connecticut western news., 1873-07-25
Change of Climate.

We are often asked the question
 whether there is any evidence of {
 change of climate, or whether with al
 the local variations in the seasons, the
 climate of New England is not essen.
 tlally the same as 1t always has been.
 We are not of course prepared to answer
 the question authoritatively, and we
 have generally been of the opinion that
 the climate has not changed materially
 since the country was first settled by
 white men. This opinion was based on
 the fact that severe droughts, severely
 hot summers, and severely cold winters
 were known from the earliest days of the colony, and we have summers that are as oppressive and difficult to bear as any that our forefathers could have sweat under in the last century.
 U pon the general question of grad ual change of climate, however, we are now prepared to reply in the affirmative, that IS, that changes have taken place and are still taking place, that prove beyond all doubt that local climates may become quite different affecting wide sections of territory, or extensive regions of the surface of our globe, though 1t must be admitted that the data for passing an accurate estimate of the extent of these climatic changes are comparatively recent, or of modern ori- gln. The means of making accurate meteorological observations, which alone can settle such point, are of modern orlgln, and anything that dates beyond them becomes to greater or less ex- tent, matter of conjecture, and is in- volved In more or less doubt and un- certainty.
 As an example of we'll authenticated climatic changes, we may mention that Iceland and Eastern Greenland are very much colder than they were five hun dred years ago. In Iceland the im- mense trees which used to be common there have ceased to grow, though there are abundant evidences of the large growth at former period, say in the fourteenth century, while on the oppo- site shores of Greenland, several val !eys that were known to have been in- habited formerly, have become wholly inaccessible in consequence of having been invaded by ice.
 Moreover, accurate thermometric ob- servat1ons have conclusively proved that for century, at least, the cold has somewhat increased at many places in Germany, at Ratisbon, Prague, Ham, burgh, etc., the month of December having become relatively much colder. while January has become warmer than It was formerly. The mean tempera- ture of England has increased two de- grees In the last hundred years; the in- crease for the single month of January being no less than three degrees, and the general climate of France has be- come milder and more equable. notwith- standing certain changes in particular localities, which indicate that their eli mate IS more severe than formerly. Fv- ldence of this appears in the fact that the vine IS no longer successfully culti- vated on the shores of the Bristol Chan nel, nor in Flanders, nor in Brittany. In neither of these localities can grapes r1pen now except in uncommonly favor able years, though history and chroni- cles tell us they once produced exqui- site wines.
 So far as certain localities are con- cerned, not only science, but material facts, go to show great changes of eli mate, for the titles of property running back to 1861, state that formerly the vintage took place at the height of two thousand feet on the sides of the noun talns of Vivarais, where now the vine no longer bears fruit. In one section of France, the culture of the olive tree has retrograded or moved from nine to ten miles to the south in 8 hundred years, and the sugar cane has disap- peared from Provence, where it was once acclimated.