The mirror., 1920-12-16

winters now bring deeper SHOWS and
greater cold, while others are mild and
open. These variations result from diff
ferences in the numbers, intensity and
paths of winter storms, as is clearly seen
by a study of the daily weather maps.
This same sort of variability was char
acteristic of the past, and will continue
forever. In other words, a mild winter
with light snowfall is just as 'old-fash-
ioned' as one with severe cold and heavy
snowfall. There were plenty of both
kinds of winters in the past. There will
be plenty of both kinds in the future.
"In his 'Climatology of the United
States which was standard publication
in its day (1Ss7), Lorin Blodget, in a
chapter on the 'Permanence of the Princi-
pal Conditions of Climate, speaking of
the evidence for and against climatic
change, held that real history would be
more valuable than anything else if it
could be relied on, but there is great loose
ness with much exaggeration in every
thing dating back beyond the use of in
struments. Blodget believed that the
Mortimer found the New England coast
$50 years ago quite precisely the same in
climate as now-wild vines growing in a
very few of the most favored spots, and
only in these
CDR. Hugh Williamson is quoted as
saying, in 1870, that the winters of the
last half-century had been milder than
formerly, and Professor Samuel Williams,
of Harvard College, whose, lectures were
among the foundation-st of American
meteorology, asserted that the winter is
less severe, cold weather does not come on
so soon.' These views sound singularly
like those which are heard expressed now
adays. 1t so happens that the early set
tiers of New England made a special
point of keeping chronicle of weather
conditions, so that we have record of
the character of the seasons running back
over three centuries. When these old ac-
counts are examined, it at once becomes
apparent that New England had precisely
the same variability in its winters in the
earlier days of its settlement as now.
There are accounts of great cold; of deep
SHOWS; of violent winter storms. There
are also many descriptions of very mild
and open winters. Thus, we read of De-
cember and January resembling May and
June; of flowers growing in the woods in
mid-winter; of so little snowfall 'as
scarcely to give opportunity for enjoying
the music of the sleighbells'; of green
Christmases'; of winter turned into sum-
mer'; of the ground bare for the most
part; of little ice; of crocuses up, of wild
violets in bloom, and lilacs throwing out
their leaves in January.
'It has been well pointed out that if
list were compiled of heavy snowstorms,
of droughts, of floods, of severe cold, of
mild winters, of heavy rains, and of other
similar meteorological phenomena, for one
of the early-settled portions of the United
States, beginning with the date of the first
white settlements and extending down to
the present day, we should have the fol-
lowing situation. Dividing this list into
halves, each division continuing the same
number of years, it would be found,
speaking in general terms, that for every
mild winter in the first half there would
be mild winter in the second; for every
long-continued drought in the first divi-
sion there would be similar drought in
the second; for every old-fashioned' win
ter in the second. And SO on, through the
list. In other words, weather and climate
have not changed from the time of the
landing of the Pilgrims down to the