Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1893-03-09
8Es';!ldHsR4S 8 Hlls4;MS
ss.es1sz 80.
RECORD OF SOME COLD WINTERS.

Though We Have Been Having q Cold
Winter There Have Been Others.
The impression that this is remark
able winter and one of the old fashioned
kind led Professor John Smock, the state
geolosist OF New Jersey, to make tyine
seasonable comments ON the kind Of
weather that our forefathers had when
this country was new. Professor Smock
has written considerable about the
weather and has finished the most com
plete record of the weather that has been
brought between the covers of book.
From the, facts and figures that he has
at his command the people who became
frightened few weeks ago when the
mercury dallied around the zero point
were unjustly so, and should be con-
soled with the information. that the
folks of this day and generation are not
in 1t with the good old sires of colonial
and Revolutionary days for cold winters.
Professor Smock's record goes back to
1907, and it tells how often the Hudson
and the Delaware rivers were frozen
over. This record is particularly inter-
esting because it tells OF frost in June
and rivers full ice in April. Frost
making its appearance in every month in
the year and snowstorms in May destroy
ing the crcps. There are numerous cases
cited where the mercury had gone way
below zero and remained there weeks at
a time.
Some extracts are made from the rec
ords, and they tell their own story:
2-Chesapeake bay nearly frozen over.
17l7-Feb. 1924, great snow; greatest ever
known" up to that time in New England and
ON Long Island.
1764-5-Navigatio in the Delaware much OBJ
structed by ice from Dec. "a until Feb. %; Feb.
7, an OK roasted W mole on the ice at Philadel-
phia; March 2s, snow fell to 21h feet deep on a
level.
1796-7-Delaware closed Dec. %; Susquehanna
closed Dec. 6; Jan. 10, as cold weather as re-
membered in so years: at south and west ex-
tremely cold.
1yN-SIwinter long and cold Hudson river
closed in November; Delaware frozen over Dec.
|, open again Feb. 8.
l798-9-A long and severe winter. with much
snow; March IL, deep snow.
l799-Cold weather in spring; Ice April 20;
frost June6.
1199-1SO0-A remarkably open winter until
Jan. @; Delaware open again on 18th; snow
feet deep in Georgia; snow and hail at st.
Mary's river in Florida.
1SO3-May 7, ice; on the 9Th, a snow which
broke down the poplars and other trees In leaf.
1928 2S-9-Hudson river closed Dec. %; free from
ice April.
l829-3O-Hudson river at Albany closed Jan.
II QS3O), and free from ice again March Is.
lS3O-l-Winter very cold at southwest; ice
formed at New Orleans.
ls35-January and February both very cold;
Feb 8, thermometer fell below zero nearly all
over the country north of Savannah and
Natchez; Long Island sound was closed by ice;
coolest winter since lI79-S0
March was the coolest month of the winter
of 1923; snow 10 inches deep in Georgia. Au-
gust, remarkably heavy rainfall in Newark,
n. j., 2284 inches; at Lambertville, 1925 inches.
Hudson river free from ice at Albany April l3
having closed Nov. 26, le42
Winter of 1872 cold; mean temperatures of
the months 8 to degrees below the average;
the East river was crossed on the ice Jan. 80,
and for three days following Susquehanna at
Havre de Grace frozen over for seven weeks;
cold and SHOWS as far south as New Orleans
and Jacksonville.
Trenton Gazette.