Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1875-02-19
A severe Winter.

The New York Times, aner remarking
that the present Winter is more severe in
that city than has been experienced there
since 1885, says: In the interior the cold
has been excessive, the mercury falling to
400 below zero in several parts of the State !;
and reports from New England and the
Northwest indicate temperature even
lower than this. Mercury CONCEALED at
Concord, N. H., the other day, and, at sew
era points in the far West, spirits lost flu-
idity when exposed TO the air in an open
vessel. Reports from the North Atlantic
coast are filled with suffering and disaster
from the extreme cold. Seamen are una
BILE to work their vessels in consequence of
the rigging becoming ice bound, and ma
ny craft, coming on the coast, have been
put down into the Gulf Stream in order to
thaw out the running rigging. Pilots agree
that they have never before seen such hard
ship and difficulty at sea on account of ice
and cold and several lives have been lost
on board vessels shut up by the icy EN-
barge along our shores. The cold wave,
or wavCs-for there have been several of
them-seem TO have spread all over the
paratively unknown, the thermometer has
ranged very low, aHd there has been much
rain. This is true of several of the South
ern and Pacific States; and invalids,
though they have escaped the unusual ter
rors of this Northern Winter, have not
found in moro favored regions all the balm
in ess of climate that they expected. Even
in the islands of the Pacific, which Her
man Melville and others have described
as an earthly paradise Of bliss, the lightly
clad natives are astonshed by the low tenn
peratures heretofore unknown. Travellers
on the Mediterranean complain of leaden
skies and uncomfortable days and nights.
Americans visiting in the south Of France
write home dolorous accounts Of cold and
cherries hotels, all unprepared for the sud
den exigencies of such a Winter as this.
All over the British Isles, about the begin
ming of the year, the cold was intense, and
the snow, especially in the south of Eng
land, was of unprecedented depth. III
great country houses, where much merry
making was planned, visitors found great
difficulty in keeping comfortable. Even
along the north coast Of Africa, where one
would expect 10 find a tropical sky, the
weather, in December, was said TO be I'M
usually cool, and the atmosphere not at all
African.
There will be a loud csll OH scientific
men for some explanation of these unwel-
come phenomena. Whether the earth is
passing through some boreal belt in the
universe, or the axis of the globe is chang
ing, the wise men ouly can tell us. We
know that fossil remains in Arctic regions
indicate that the equatorial belt was once
where "the pole sticks up through the
snow" and we believe that there are those
who predict that the earth will once more
revolve at right angles with lis present AK
is, when Quito will be inside the Arctic or
Antarctic circles, and Spizbergen will lie
on the equator.
This excessive cold is showing itself in
the prevalence of various dangerous dis
eases, which partake of the nature of in
flammation or congestion. Pneumonia has
assumed foim almost like that of an cpl
demic. Physicians say that the prevalence
of this and kindred complaints is probably
due TO the extraordinarily cold weather Of
The past few weeks, Sudden or long ex-
posture, severe chills, and cold feet are spec
tally to be guarded against. People are too
apt to consider that there is no danger from
cold so long as one is wa nly dressed but
even this precaution is sometimes ineflect-
ual, and the large number of deaths from
pneumonia and kindred diseases is by no
means confined 10 people whose avocations
call them into severe exposure.