Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1873-03-20
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Memorable Winters.

|. The Winter now drawing to a close
has had few parallels in the later
climatic history of this country. Like
the winter of 1S12-13;; which broke in
SO prematurely upon the French cam.
paign in Russia, the present cold
season came in December, Tho very
low temperatures through which We
have passed may serve to show that
these boreal phenomena are not to be
altogether confined to a colonial OF
primeval age. ~ : %.&i*& . ~
We knowzshat in thereuaote period.
Of Europern oiviliz&tion the climate o1
the Old World was much colder than
it is, now; g Italian sky" not the
boast OF all that is soft and genial,
must have worn forbidd;ng and very
different aspect when the classic an.
nalists describe the streets Of Rome as
blocked with ice and snow, the. Tiber
as solidly frozen over, and when the
tender herds were the prey of frost.
The fairest valleys of Central Europe,
now famous, for their vsrdure and
vintage, were in those early periods
the abode Of the Arctic elk and rein
deer; and the streams which drained
them, as Gibbon tells, were annually
covered with firm bridges of ice,
which the barbarian armies securely
crossed. Even in comparatively mod.
ern times intense cold has visited large
portions of Europe. In 1858 the Baltic
was clothed with an immense sheet of
ice, over which Charles <. marched his
entire army from Holstein to Denmark
a distance of fifty miles. There are
not wanting in several instances, ex-
tending as far back as 1923, when tho
Thames was so thickly coated with ice
as to furnish safe entertainment to
large fairs, while just after our Western
country was settled, at the close of the
last century, the ice-covercd sea around
Holland was the theatre of Winters
campaign
Arago, the distinguished French
physicist, attempted to argue from the
collected annals of extreme Winters
that the climate of the continents had
in the lapse of ages of the worlds
physical life undergone no changes.
But in the light of the present century,
now nearly three.quarters passed, such
a view must be discarded. Whether
We accept the year cycle of forty
years, indicated by the rigorous Win.
ters of 17O9, 1749, 1889, 1880 and 1871
72, including the present. we find great
mitigation il the cold. No Winter in
the nineteenth century will compare in
severity with many that can be named
in the previous, the medieval and the
classic periods in which latter Ovid
mentions the fact that the waves OF the
Euxine or Black Sea were strongly
CONCEALED.
The colonial records of America give
but very meagre accounts of accurate
thermometric data, but a few facts
show that our climate, cold as this
Winter has been, is not as rigorous as
when the present century. opened. Mr..
Jefferson states, in his valuable papers,
that in 1850 the Chesapeake Bay was
frozen solid from itshead to tn emouth
of the Potomac River, and at Annapolis,
where it is more than five miles be-.
tween the nearest points of land, the
ice was so firm that loaded carriages
went over it. From this and other
phenomenal occurrences the Virginia
philosopher inferred that when the
country was cleared the extreme cold
would be diminished. The old records
of American climate, such as those Of
Rush and Volney, indicate Winters of
greater severity than now occur. Sam.
uel Williams, Of Harvard, the learned
author of a series of thermometric OBJ
servations during the last part of the
previous century, computed the change
of Winter climate at Boston at ten or
or twelve degrees from 1880 to 1888.
Al before intimated, there are no ther-
mometrio records sufficiently compro-
hensive to afford inferential conclu-
sions as to climatic change in the West
and the Valley of the Mississippi but
the early accounts of the first settlers
and explorers all go to show extremes
Of cold greater than are now expe-
rienced. The Canadian settlers, until
alter the middle Of the last century,
found the climate around Quebec too
severe fol, corn TO 'ripen. '"'' "''
: tits certain that our coolest Winters
since 1900 have, not attained the low
Of the preceding five do.
cades, in pne OF which, AZ we have seen,
the Chesapeake Bay was frozen over.
The Winter of 1855 was marked by,
extraordinary and extensive refrigera
tion, holding the rivers from st. Louis
to Philadelphia in it's icy grip from
December to late in March but this
was an exception, and yet can hardly
be ranked with the early colonial Win
ters in point of intensity.
The attempt has been made to
explain these changes of terrestrial
climate by the changes which man has
upon the forest-covered face
Of the Continent and drainage of the
soil, resulting in a diminished rainfall
and snowfall. Whether this be theor-
etically correct or not the facts remain
the same and they furnish additional
proof that the aerial shell Of earth is
undergoing physical change, as we'll as
The solid crust and the deep sea beds:
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Conversational Summary.
SENArE.-On Friday, the 14tll,
resolution was offered authorizing the Com
for the purpose Of investigating the subject OF
steamship subsidies. The Caldwell case was
again considered. -
SENATE Thursday, March 13.
Mr.. McCrecry was excused from serving OF,
the committees on Public Buildings and Agri.
culture. Several resolutions were offered and
referred. The Caldwell case was then again
taken up. -"