The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1891-03-07
NNTERS, PAST AND PRESENT

According to recent dispatches from
the Old World it is apparent that a
winter of unusual severity has bound all
England and the continent with chains OF
ice. From John o. Groat's House to
Lands End the country is covered with
shaw ana ice. There is skating on the
Thames above and below Oxford for
miles. Above Teddington, where the
sIdal water ends, the ice Is eight inches
Belgium, Holland and north Germany
are blocked with ice along their coasts.
The Seine is full of ice. and the Saone is
frozen. Along the Rhine snow drifts
seventeen feet in depth are piled in places
and Bavaria is hidden beneath a mantle
Of white. Northern italy has been
visited with weather such as the present
generation has never felt, and railways
are blocked with snow at Mantua, Turin
and Milan. Snow has fallen in Spain.
and orange groves in Valencia ruined by
frosts. And down IN Algeries, and for
some distance inland, snow and hail have
wrought havoc and ruin. Such are the
reports that come to US, coupled with tails
of distress and misery among the
pOorer classes. A winter like this lie un-
usual, but not unparalleled. Some faint
he irted people. who have read the claims
Of the scientists that in some five millions
Of years the sun will have ceased to give
forth any heat, are assured In this belief
by a winter such as the present. But
nothing is so uncertain as the weather,
for 1t is recorded that as far back as 404
A. ID. the Pontus Euxinus, or Black Sea,
was frozen over for twenty days, and the
faipt-hearted ones will not deny that
since then We have experienced several
extremely mild winters. From October,
1888, until February 764, the two seas at
Constantinople were frozen for a hun
dred miles from shore, and on mid-sum-
mel day in the year 1898 the fruits in
England are said to have been destroyed
by frost. As for the ice-bound Thames,
Of which so much is said this year, the
chronicles of 1868 say that COR fourteen
weeks the river was frozen. In 1888 4
again the same is related, and carriages
passed over from Lambeth to Westmin-
lister In 1916. There were sports and d.
versions on the Thames during the
christmas season of 1854, and also in
1907, and of December, 1893, to February,
1884, this melancholy cou is given:
"The forest tees and ever the oaks in
England split by the frost; most of the
hollies were killed; the Thames
covered with ice eleven inches
thick; and nearly all the birds
persisted" Like reports have been made
oft and again since then, the last excep-
tional winter occurring in 1855. The
continent also furnishes parallels of Sc
we're winters running back 1.400 years.
The Cattegat was entirely frozen over in
1904 and men and horses passed f'Om
Denmark to Sweden over the frozen Bal
TIC in 14G0. -Four years later it is re-
corded that the weather was so severe in
Flanders that wine distributed at the
time was cut with hatchets. The Rhine,
the Scheldt, and the sea at Venice were
frozen in 1884. Ice covered the Helles~
pont and the Zuyder Zee, as well AS all
the rivers IN Europe in the year 1922, ard
Charles X. of Sweden conducted his en-
tire army over the Little Belt on the
ice from Holstein to Denmark in 1858.
Wolves, rendered desperate by the cold
In 1901, entered Vienna and attacked meu
and cattle; and in the early part of lS49
the frosts in Norway were so intense that
quicksilver froze, and persons exposed
to the air lost their breath. These records
might be continued at pleasure, but the
Instances cited 60 to show that the pres
ent reign of cold is not unprecedented.
And who forgets the March blizzard of
1883, which held the eastern states in
thrall? The blizzard, however, was short
lived, though its effects were lasting, and
New York was visited by greater cold in
1850, when the bay was entirely frozen
md teams crossed on the ice. In 1921 the
,ay was again frozen. The mercury con-
,ealed in Northern Indiana In 1855, and
q 1881 the thermometer registered zero
n Mobile, Alabama. To offset these ex-
IMPLIES of extreme cold there are numer-
us records of extremely mild winters,
vhich have followed each other for years