The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1881-02-23
Other. Cold Winters.

That the present Winter has been more severe
and unpleasat than any for several years is
generally acknowledged land it hangs on welD,
but a little history of the past shows colder
weather and greater continuance than we have
yet experienced. The most remarkable that
this country has ever known was the Winter of
1779-SO when. as Jefferson says in his Notes !"
the Chesapeake was covered with solid ice from
Its head to the mouth of the Potomac; and at
Annapolis, where the bay is more than FIVE
miles wide, the ice was from FIVE to seven inches
In thickness, and loaded wagons passed over
1t was at this time that troops crossed on the ice
from New Jersey to Staten Island. Washington
supposing. as Ramsey say, that an attack on
about 200 British troops, posted on Staten
Island might be advantageously made, especially
IN Its present state of union with the continent
by an unbroken body os solid ice" The Della
ware River was closed from the lst of Decem.
Der to the l4th of March, the ice being two or
three feet thick. Long Island Sound and the
Chesapeake were so completely ice bound as to
be passable only with horses and sleighs The
lowest temperature, according to DR.. Webster's
observations at Hartford, was 20 deg. below
zero on the 29th of January
Back of that time was the Winter OF 174O-41
which was reckoned the coolest that had been
known. my father" said Dr. Noah Webster.
who was a witness of the Winters of l74l and
1850, considered the cold of the former quite
equal to that of the latter" The snow which
OF November was still found the next Apri
covering the fences. The Boston Post Bow for
Jan. II reports a tent on the Charles River for
the entertainment of travellers. The Boston
News Letter for March tells us that people
ride every day from Stratford, Conn, to Long
Island. which is three leagues" Even as far
east as New London we are told that the ice
extended into the Sound as far as could be seen
from the town; and that Fishers Island was
united to the mainland by solid bed" On
March 2Sth the Boston News Letter reports that
the people living on Thompson's Island had
crossed over to Dorchester to church on the ice
for the fifteen preceding Sundays
AS late as the 9th of July a letter fom New
London, Conn.,, reports on the east side of the
Connecticut River a body of ice as large as
two carts can draw, clear and solid, and adds
very artlessly that cit might lay there month
longer were it not that so many resort out of
curiosity to drink punch made out of it." On
the 18th OF July snow was still lying in mass in
the town of Ipswich, Mass, nearly four feet
thick.
But the most marvellous record of the season
is the statement made by Alonzo Lewis, author
of the Annals of Lynn, Mass" that Francis
Lewis, one signer of the Declaration of Inde-
dendence, drove his horse from New York to
Barnstable, the whole length of Long Island
Sound, on the ice"
The Winter of lS34'5 was very severe one.
On the 4th of January and the Sth of February
the mercury is reported to have stood at 40
deg. below zero in Vermont, New Hampshire,
Maine, and different places in Massachusetts.
In December of the same year the temperature
went down to the same figure in some parts of
New England. A very severe Winter ds35-6)
followed, of which the American Almanac for
1897 said: 1t has, in the Eastern and Middle
States, been one of the longest and severest OF
which we have any knowledge There was a
considerable fall of snow on the 23d of Novem.
Der, and from that time the sleighing continued
IN the vicinity of Boston without being at any
time entirely interrupted till about the last of
March. Nor did the snow in and about Boston
entirely disappear until the LIST of May
The Winter of 1866 56 was in the Eastern
States almost reproduction of 1779-8O. The
cold wave passed over all the United States on
the 23d and oath of December, and severe cold
weather continued for almost three months.
On the 10th of January following heavy snow
storm the temperature was 80 deg. below zero
IN Chicago, 10 below at Washington, and 26 at
Fort Smelling. AT Woodstock in Vermont, the
temperature fell to 43 deg below. and at En-
field, N. H.. Fryeburg, Me-. and many others
places the mercury was frozen solid 1t was
jocularly proposed at the tine, in view of what
had happened in Maine town, to change its
name to Freezeburg Large quantities of snow
lay in Washington from New Years to the mid
die of March, and ice covered the Potomac for
the same period Long Island Sound was closed
to navigation from January % to February 81.
and the harbor of New York was much OBJ.
structed by ice.-N. Y. Evangelist