The Winter

A great deal is being said of the un. usual severity of the winter, and the latest iicws from the British Islands is that the Gulf Stream must havo cooled off so as to give London thé benefit of her situation six hundred miles north of New York, However, the X. Y. Times is not satisiied, and says there seem to be no sucli winters now as we eveaty or cighty yeárs ago, and speaking of cold weather: ".During tho sevettteenth and elghteenth centunes, there were in the Old World some winters bitterly memorabie. In Hritain, in 1004, the Thamés was frozen to the depth of 63 s, and nearly all the birds In the l'nited Kingdom pei-iiiiicd. In 1692, the cold was so intense in SouUiern Burópe, espeeially in Austria, that wohcs weredriven intoVfenn, wheie thej attacked bèasts of burden and liuman betngs; Threé years later, many peisons were frozen to death in varioiis parta of (iennany. The cold winter, as it was ealled for distinetion, occured in 1709, when all the rivers and lakes in Europe were eompactly frozen, and even the sea several miles from shore, and the earth itself from : to eight feet deep. lïirds and beasts i'ell dead, and thonsands o!' men. women and children perished in I lüiu-i-i. In Southern Franc. ■, nc:i rl all tlie vineyards were destroyed, and have not vet recovered from the dis. Thr Adriatic was frozen, an innch of the Meditei-ranean in th nüighborhood of Oenoa and Leghon and tlie lemon and orange groves wei 1ltghted in many paris of Italy. During 1710 persons crossed the straits from Copenhagcn to the Provilice of Seiiia (Lnden) otl the ie. -; and wagons likewise. Snow lay ton feetdeep in Spain and il during 1740, the Zuyder Zee was e eedwithiee ihiek enougfi to bear a multitude of people, and four years áfter, snow measured on alevel twentythree feet in Portugal. In 1771 Elbe was frozen. to the bottprn, and in 177ü the Duim!' showed iee beldw Vïenna eiglit to ten icol tliiek. TIn winter of 1779-80 was very se v ere in Ihis ('(111111)7, The l'itte.r cold li(;;;m in i i m ii lic It lie olXovoi ulier, Mini continue', until tlie closeof February. 'l'Iic Bun'e rays wére no)t warm enough to melt the snow wbich. lfty on the ground most live mpnths, so thick that it was hard lo get from place to place. '■11 ivünin-v h odies ol' water were iceit}c Towlsand wild ! eys perished by thousands; so dld deer and buffalo, and wolves and panthers, üiainlv from laek Öf tlieir nalural food, buried imdiT tliesnow. 'l'lie Noilliein and Western riyers weje leitered by the Crost, and the Cumberland was so lirnily froen as Lar sontli as Xasli that emigrant trains passed securely over the rlver. The Delaware, opposite Philadelphia, coiitained Lee of íhree o Cour Eeef, and Long Island Sound an the Cheaapeake were frozen over Seientific persons have declaréd tha hot and eold waves often recur ever; n years, as in 1846, LS-r)7 and and the weather-wise prediet thai wlll prove tobe one of the coldes rs kiKiwn Eor Iwenty years." In 1879, wlien l'iovidence, R. I. established tts nw famoua wood yard l'or tramps,the öutdoor relief amountecl to $7,333, aad 1,143 tramps were Eorced to work in the yard. During the whole of laai year oniv t:(l tvanip's ventured near üw place, while, llm amount of reliei decreased to 4,736. Tliis wood yard Uas proved the best Investment the city ever ïnnde.