Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1902-11-26
CLIMATE DOESN'T CHANGE.
THE "oLDEST iNHASITANT" CON-
TRADlCTED BY RECORDS.
1t Is Psychological Phenomenon
Which Close Observers Are Aware
of For Persons to Have Celuslons
kLo,,t tho Wo,@bar

of For Persons to Have Celuslons
About the Weather.
''There is nothing so untrustWorthy
as unaided human recollection once
remarked the late John G. Nicolay,
who helped to write the Lincoln
memoirs; he referred particularly to
historic controversies, and intended
to discredit those observations which
had not been put in black and white
at the time of the occurrence OF the
event, but instead had been allowed
to grow. A forcible illustration of this
truth is found in popular estimates OF
the weather. 1t was only last year
that we had summer so hot as to
break the records of the Weather
Bureau, and yet this summer the
countrymen hereabout are saying that
''the climate is changing" and specl-
fcally charging that 1.-The summers are
not what they used to be-"
This is psychological phenomenon
similar to that one which accounts for
that peculiar brand of pie that
mother used to make" Whatever
the pies, the climate remains the
same, as will be proved by the truth
full records of semitic appliances.
There are periods during which it
varies; times when cold or rain or
heat prevails to larger extent than
the normal But when the whole is
summed up, covering a reasonably
long period of time. it is found that
the frost-line is just where it used to
be, and the cold or hot or the rainy
periods are no more or less frequent
than when. grandfather was a boy.
Thomas Jefferson was a victim to
the popular del,f=ion, and writing in
It'll, said; "a change of climate is
taking place very sensibly. Both
heats and colds are becoming more
moderate within the memory of even
the middle.agcd. Shows are less fire.
quent and less deep. They do not
often lie below the mountains more
than one, two or three days, and very
rarely week. The SHOWS are re-
membered to have been formerly fire.
quent, deep, ard of long continuance.
The elderly inform me that the earth
used to be covered about three months
in every year.
But in those days there was no
Weather Bureau, and the elderly
were free to give their recollection
without the danger of an official OBJ
servation being quoted. In Europe
accurate records have been kept o
dates of the opening of navigation
of streams at certain points for sew
eral centuries. and it is shown that,
covering a long period of years, there
has been NO appreciable change. The
first twenty years of record, compar-
ed with the totals of the last twenty
years, gives the same result.
Observations made by geologsts
convince them, and Professor Moore
of the Weather Bureau, that in our
lake regions no changes of climate
have taken place for several thousand
years. Ossian Guthrie, the noted civil
engineer, says that "the same variety
of trees now growing in the lake
regions were growing soon after the
glacial epoch"
The records of the Weather Bureau
show that the maximum Of heat re-
corded in the United States was in
Colorado, at Mammoth Tank, a sta
tion in the desert. where in 1887, the
thermometer recorded, in the shade,
12S degrees Fahrenheit. Again in
1884, 124 degrees was reached in the
same place. Taking 1t all together,
the hottest place in the United tSates
is Californias Death Valley The
name is supposed 20 come from
tragedy which occurred there in the
SOS, when party of immigrants en-
tered the valley, and every one died
of thirst. The valley is the bed of
a former salt lake, and it is below
the level of the sea. Streams flow
into it. but the burning sands and
alkali lick them up. Large borax de-
posits are found there. The valley is
seventy-fve miles long and in places
ONLY six miles widc at the bottom.
In 1891 the Weather Bureau sent an
observer to remain there and take
observations all summer. When he
returned, he said he would take per-
dition straight" next time. He was
there 152 days. On the hottest day
the maximum was 100 and the mini
mum 80 degrees. making an average
for the day of 1856, which is rather
trying weather.
Professor Moore advises people not
to stand in doorways or at open win
dows during severe electric storms.
The neighborhood of trees and fire
places are to be avoided. On the
other hand, he says it will do little
or no good to wrap up in a feather
bed. Alarm, in case Of lightning, is
quite superhuous. Remember that
one who lives to see the lightning
fash need not concern himself. about
the possibility of harm from that
flash. Also recollect that heaven has
more thunders to alarm than thunder
bolts to punish. 1t serves also to
calm the spirits to think that even
though struck by lightning. the conse-
ouences are net always fatal; even If
stunned. and apparently dead, the vic
tim may be resuscitated. Professor
Moore says not to cease efforts at ar
tificial respiration and stimulation for
an hour. Lightning stuns, but does
not often kill.-New York Post.
The Last of the Soufriere Bird.
An untoward result of the recent