The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1891-08-22
Freaks of the Elements.

The late William NJ Darlington, of
Guyasuta, had a hobby for collecting
weather records from the earliest period of
the settlement of Pennsylvania At his
death most interesting paper was found
among his effects, giving climatic data.
MIR. DarlingtOn's record has recently been
published in the Pittsburg Commercial
Gazette, from which these extracts are
taken:
On December IL, 1851, ship arrived
at Chester with settlers from England; that
night the Delaware river was frozen over
The next winter was mild, but the follow
ing was very severe. In 1857 loaded
sleds passed on the ice from Philadelphia
to Chester. The winters of 7O4 and i7O5
were intensely cold, with heavy SHOWS.
Deer were found dead in the woods, and
many came to the farms and eat fodder
with the cattle. In February, 1714, wild
flowers were found blooming in the woods.
On November II, 1871, Philadelphia
merchant closed letter with the sentence:
My ink freezes, which obliges me to con-
clude. The Delaware was closed by thick
ice for three months in the winter of 1928,
and booths were set up in the middle of
the river
Up to 1741 the winters were not re-
markable, but in that year cattle died for
want of fodder, and many families lived on
the deer found starved and frozen to death.
In some places the snow was three feet
deep until the 10Th of April The first
snow at Philadelphia in 1756 fell in March.
The heaviest snow storm know since the
settlement of the Province set in at Phila-
delphia on March 20, 1850. For eighteen
hours the snow fell without cessation.
There was great inundation at Phila-
delphia on January 10, 1862, caused by
sudden thaw. On December 81, 1894,
the Delaware was frozen over in one night
so that it was passable in the morning.
The next year, on February Z, an OK was
roasted whole on the river, and the specta-
Gle drew great crowd. Thirty miles west
Of this city the thermometer was % de-
grees below zero one January day in 1867.
The winters of 1772-3-4 were extremely
cold. In February, 1879, there were peach
blossoms, dandelions, crocuses and other
wild flowers in bloom about Philadelphia
The winter of 1870 was the most severe
known in America up to that time. In
the month of January, the thermometer,
except on one day, never rose to the freez-
ing point Ice was eighteen inches thick.
Deer, turkeys, partridges and squirrels died
by the thousand. A party of hunters was
sent to the Little Kenhawah to kill buffa-
loes to supply the troops at Fort Pitt with
food. Snow in some districts was four
feet deep.
The ice on the Schuylkill broke up on
January B, 1889, destroying three bridges
and doing much other damage. The Del
aware froze tight and thawed four times
during the winter. The spring was very
cold until June l. The summer was very
hot. The winter of 1890 was remarkable.
Mr.. Darlington records that boys bathed in
the rivers at Philadelphia on January 3.
The first ice on the rivers was on February
Z. On the 1st of May there was flood.
An earthquake was felt and meteor
seen at Pittsburg, January Z, 1901 At
Philadelphia it was very cold, and on JAN
uary l6 there was a bright light accom-
panied by strange rumbling sound Our
chronicler writes at Pittsburg on January
8, 1902: "0ur days are as warm as the
latter end of April and but little frost at
night. At Philadelphia the winter was
very mild There was no ice until Feb
ruary 4, and by the last of the month many
shrubs were in leaf and blossom. The fol-
lowing winter was very cold with continual
SHOWS until April
Mr.. Darlington's winter weather record
ends with the winter of 1904, but the va
riations are quite sufficient to justify the
following quatrain written by Thomas
Maxim, teacher of Latin in the Friends
Academy at Philadelphia and Clerk to the
Assembly in 1859:
Sometimes the lie SEQ strong and firm we know
That loaded wagons on the rivers go,
But yet so temperate some winters here
That in the streams no bars of ice appear"