USA > New York > The natural, statistical, and civil history of the state of New-York, v. 1 > Part 34
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The Hudson was also broke up, and sloops sailed from Al- bany to New-York shortly after, an event which had not oc- curred since 1756.
The cold which followed this thaw, closed both rivers again, but they were broke up between the twelfth and thirteenth of February, for the second time. .
But, notwithstanding two heavy thaws, and a very mild winter, the snow at Redfield, in the county of Oswego, was, at the cessation of the second thaw, from two to three feet deep.
The depth of the snow on the Highlands, between Trenton Falls and Martinsburgh, was, according to the testimony of reputable persons, two feet. Indeed, the whole of the Highlands was covered to a considerable depth. We have seen the same between Trenton Falls and Martinsburgh, as what we have re- lated, on two occasions, with this difference, that it was four feet deep, while the cultivated parts of the Mohawk country, were mostly bare. The snows, however, which fall on the Highlands are not so deep as they were formerly, before the country was improved, nor are they so early, nor do they con- tinue so late, nor is the weather so very severe. The changes follow the elearings. Redfield is not the highest part of the Highlands of Black river, although more snow falls there than in any other part, at this day.
The fruit trees were in blossom along the Mohawk as early as the sixth of May.
The snow fell on the twenty-ninth of October 1824, on the Highlands, between Utica and Martinsburgh, from one to two feet deep, but none fell in the valley of the Mohawk, or adja- cent thereto. On the thirtieth the stage went on runners for forty miles. The weather was cold, and had every appear- ence of winter. Such was the information which we had from travellers.
On the morning of November first, the ground in the valley was whitened with snow, but it vanished in the course of the day.
This trifling fall, we think, must have been occasioned by the snow on the Highlands chilling the superior atmosphere over VOL. I .. 50
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the valley of the Mohawk, to such an extent as to transform the vapors, which would otherwise have descended in rain in- to snow.
The Niagara Centinal, of November fifth, announced the fall of snow to the depth of two feet in some of the southeru towns of Erie, and the formation of ice three or four inche: thick. 1
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This fall must have been about the twenty-ninth of October. December was very mild, more like April than winter.
The winter of 1824, 1825, was the mildest in the improved parts of the State, of perhaps any known since the colonization. There was very little snow and cold. Between Albany and Utica, via the Mohawk, there was not one week of sleighing, had the whole time been put together ; and west of Utica, to the Niagara river, there was not three days, unless about Oneida lake. There were but two falls of snow which could have been said to extend much beyond whitening the ground, and these were inconsiderable, especially to the west. We speak, however, only of the line from Albany to Utica, and thence to Niagara river, and the country along Hudson's river, from the Matteawan mountains, northwardly to Lake Champlain.
The first fall was about the twelfth of January, and did not extend westwardly of Onondaga. It came from the east, and was seven or eight inches at Albany, as we were told ; at Her- kimer there was about half that depth.
The second came the twenty-ninth and thirtieth of January, and was from the east. We were informed that it fell to the depth of eighteen inches at Albany, fourteen at Utica, nine or ten at Onondaga, and about seven at Genesee river.
At Newfane and Lewistown, in the county of Niagara, it fell about six inches, as we saw, and came from the northeast. We, however, have little hesitation in avering, that the apparent difference arose from the direction of the St. Lawrence valley, and the configuration of the basin of Lake Ontario. From the foregoing facts, it will be seen that there was a pretty gradual diminution all the way from Albany to Niagara river. Most of this snow was swept away by a great thaw on the fifth
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and sixth of February. This thaw extended over perhaps one- half of the State. It 'seemed to have occupied two principal lines, besides some others of smaller extent. In the west it extended along lakes Erie and Ontario, and over the great plain and the champaigns, and some of the hilly tracts, as far eastwardly as the county of Oneida. In the east it extended along the Hudson, northwardly to Lake Champlain, &c.
From the Hudson champaigns it detached a branch which proceeded up the Mohawk, as far as the Nose, or Fall Hill, where it was met by a branch from the west. Thus uniting, the two winds sweept off most of the snow. South and north, however, of the branches, the thaw had little effect on the snow, the quan- tity remaining nearly the same.
The winds which brought on this thaw were southwest and south. The former prevailed at the lakes, and came from the torrid zone, as its rapidity and volume, and hot globular masses, seemed to announce. The latter, it is probable, came from the same zone, but was moister and cooler owing to its being satu- rated in its passage over the ocean, and owing to its having less volume.
West of Oneida we saw no snow except in some swamps and moist grounds. Even in these instances it was limited, and re- mained sparingly.
In the west the frost came out of the ground, and there was an entire breaking up, as much so as in spring.
March 8th, 1825-while we have had no sleighing in the val- ley of the Mohawk, for a month past it has been, till within a week, tolerably good at Fairfield, and very good from Salisbury to West Canada creek, and from thence to Martinsburgh.
The thaw of Febuary 5th and 6th, and a subsequent thaw nearly as great, were not able to carry off the snow around On- eida Lake, but the ground remained mostly covered, as we were assured by persons who had seen it. Oneida Lake is only 370 feet above tide water, and the general elevation of the country, at the distance of six or seven miles is not perhaps over four hundred and twenty, but the country is covered with woods. The land is swampy, and much of the timber is cedar, hemlock,
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and black ash, all of which are retentive of cold and moisture, and may be assigned as the causes of the depth and continuance of the snows round this lake.
The snows have always been deeper around this lake than they have been ten or twelve miles south, although the lands are considerably higher, and will always be until the woods are cut down, and the swamps drained, and the earth exposed to the warmth of the sun.
The willow trees, on the east side of Fall Hill, and adjoining the Erie canal, were green as early as the tenth of April 1825. The gooseberry, at the same time, was green. April twenty- eighth and twenty-ninth, the red plumb tree was in full blossom; the apple and peach tree had begun to blossom. Some of the forest trees, particularly the sugar maple, appeared green .-- The grass had been sufficiently abundant for the subsistance of cattle for twelve days.
November the eighteenth, the cold began, and some snow fell ; the Erie canal and Mohawk were closed in some places. Snow fell in the county of Onondaga, on the twelfth, five or six inches deep.
In the valley of the Mohawk we had no sleighing till the se- cond of January, and then it was indifferent.
. A thaw, which began on the ninth of January 1826, and continued to the evening of the eleventh, swept away the snow, broke up the West Canada creek, and Mohawk and Hudson rivers, and raised them to unusual heights. The thaw was accompanied, in the Mohawk country, west of Fall Hill, with wind and rain, which came from the southwest. The weather was mild and even warm. This thaw was terminated by the northwest wind.
Although the snow went off very carly in March, vegetation. owing to the colds during April, was tardy. On the first day of May it had not commenced. On the second, warm weather began. On the fifth, the sugar maple, elm, &c. had assumed a greenish tint ; the red plumb trec began to show its blossom?, ". &c. On the tenth the blossoms of the red cherry tree were out.
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The winter of 1827-1828, was the openest ever known. The Hudson, with the exception of a few days, was navigated the whole winter. The first interruption was about the twenty- second of December, when the steamboats had to stop at Poughkeipsie landing. The river above was partially obstruct- ed with ice, to the fourth of January. On that day a steam- boat went up to Athens ; and on the eighth another reached Albany. On the tenth, the river was clear of ice. From the twelfth to the twentieth boats plied between Troy and New- York. The cold, between the twentieth and thirtieth of Jan- uary, suspended the navigation above Poughkeipsie. On the fifth of February, the river was liberated of ice. From that time sloops and steamboats navigated it.
Between the fourteenth and seventeenth of January, a boat navigated the canal from Rochester to Buffalo, ninety miles.
The canal might have been navigated from February- eighth to March second, &c.
Between Albany and Utica, there was not four days of sleigh- ing, and between the latter place and Buffalo, not two. In the counties of Cayuga, Wayne, Munroe, &c. the ground was bare almost the whole winter, and broke up. The weather was mild with a few exceptions. Some days were warm. Bees came out. Flies appeared. The buds of willows swelled, and vegetation threatened to burst out about the eighteenth of February.
The climate of the Mohawk country is not the same it was fifty or sixty years ago. The same may be said of the Onondaga, Genesee and Susquehannah countries, and parts of the country along the St. Lawrence and Black rivers, and about the eastern end of Lake Ontario, and generally speaking, wherever large settlements have been made. That these changes have been induced by the openings made in the forests, we think, can admit of no reasonable doubt, since they have every where followed the clearings of the lands, and have been rapid or gradual, and in a ratio to those clearing ; while in those extensive forests that still remain, the climate is the same, or very nearly the same, it was in former times.
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The oldest inhabitants with whom we have conversed, all uniformly agree, that fifty or sixty years ago, the winters were much longer, the snows much deeper, the cold much greater, and the weather much more regular than it is at present ; that the springs and falls were shorter ; that the summers were also shorter ; that the winters commonly set in between the middle of November and the first of December ; sometimes earlier, and continued to the middle of April ; that the ground, usually during the whole of this period, was covered with deep snow, and the Mohawk, and its collaterals, with thick, strong and solid ice. That the ice on the Mohawk, so late as between the first and eighth of April, was so thick and strong that it was no unusual thing to run horses upon it. That the Mohawk, and its collaterals, were not then subject to those sudden and partial freezing's and breakings up which they are at present ; that when they shut up, they remained so, some instances ex- cepted, till they broke up in April. That there was, in gen- · eral, but one freezing up and one breaking up. That these were. almost simultaneous. That the Mohawk rose much higher, and flooded much more land than it now does. That then, as well as this time, the snow upon the cleared grounds, dissolved and went off first, and that in the woods last. That, in both instances, however, the snows came on earlier and went off later. That the snow, when the spring began, melted and disappeared much sooner than it does now. Such is the pic- ture which they give, and we have no doubt from what we have seen, and what may be seen every year, in the unsettled parts of the State, of its correctness .*
The climate of this State, and the neighbouring states, will be very different one or two centuries hence, should improvements continue to be made, as we have every reason to expect they
* The snow was so deep along the valley of the Mohawk, between Sche- nectady and Fort Hunter, at the mouth of Schoharie creek, on the ninth day of February, 1690, that the messengers dispatched from the former to the latter place, in order to inform the Mohawks of its capture by the French. did not reach it much short of two days, although the distance is only twen. ty miles. See Smith's History of N. Y.
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will be. The climate of Italy, Gaul, Germany, Hungary, European Turkey, and the countries around the Black Sea, is very different now to what it was eighteen or nineteen hun- dred years ago. We have mentioned these countries, because the facts which history has furnished us with, relative to the climate, are more numerous, and better authenticated than those of other countries. We need hardly mention that all the regions situated north of the Black Sea and the rivers Danube . and Rhine, were covered with woods, very much in the same manner that the Fredish States and the Canada's were two centuries ago, and that much of the country situated south of those rivers, was very nearly in the same condition, in regard · to improved lands, that the Atlantic States are at this time.
Virgil, who lived a little before the Christian era, mentions in his Georgics, that the rivers of Calabria, in the Kingdom of Naples, froze over. He speaks of it as a common occur- rence. The city of Naples is situated in latitude forty-one, very nearly the same latitude with the city of New-York, which is in forty degrees forty-two minutes. Now, Naples is north of Calabria, the latter, in its southern part, corresponding with the south parts of Virginia. .. 1
The Tiber used to freeze every winter, so that footmen and carriages passed it. Rome, which is in latitude forty-one de- grees and fifty-three minutes, stands on the banks of the Tiber. The city of Hudson is in forty-two degrees and fourteen min -. utes, and almost in the very parallel of Rome.
The ice on the Po, was so strong, that the heaviest carriages passed., The country through which this river runs, corres- ponds, in latitude with the northern extremity of this State, and the southern parts of Lower Canada. The winters were long, the snows deep, and the weather cold. The forests of Ger- many and Illyricum then existed, and we might add those of the Hungarian Kingdom.
The Emperor Augustus, who reigned over the Roman world, just before and after the commencement of our era, banished the poet Ovid, to Tomos, a place near the Euxine, or Black Sea, situated in latitude forty-four. Ovid resided at this place near-
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ly seven years. . During his residence he often saw the Black Sea covered with ice. Oxen and carriages passed over it. Wine, in the greatest colds, congealed. By passing over we understand only portions.
In the reign of the Emperor Constantine, the straits of Byzantium were frozen over. This Emperor died in the year 330.
The Black Sea, in the year four hundred and one, was cover- - ed with ice beyond the reach of vision, for twenty days. From the latter fact we do not infer that this sea was entirely shut up.
In modern times the Black Sea does not freeze. The inhabi- tants of Constantinople would be greatly alarmed were the . straits of the Bosphorus to be frozen over.
Constantinople stands on these straits in latitude forty-one. Snow at this place it considered a rare occurrence.
. The accounts which Julius Cesar gives us of France, and the Low countries, induce us to believe that the climite was not less rigorous than that of this State, New England, and Lower C'an- ada, which very nearly correspond with ancient Gaul, in situa- tion. The vine which is now cultivated in the greater part of France, and even north of the Rhine, in Germany, could not endure the severity of the climate. The Rhone, the Loire, and Seine, were every year covered, for several months, with ice. The snows were deep, the winters long, and the weather exces- - . sively cold. The heaviest loads were every winter carried over those streams on the ice. The Roman armies were obliged every year to go into winter quarters, where they continued for four, five, and sometimes six months. At present the Seine sel- dom freezes so as to admit the passage of footmen. The Loire and Rhone do not shut up. In 1814, the Allied Powers carried the war into France, and captured Paris. Hostilities continued the whole winter. The campaign was very active. Nothing is said about the weather. Hence, we are to infer that it was ordinary. Paris is in latitude forty-eight degrees fifty minutes, one degree fifty-five minutes farther north than Que- bec, in Lower Canada. .
The change of climate in Germany, Hungary, Poland, and
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other countries, situated on the north side of the Danube and Rhine, bas been remarkable. All the Roman writers, and parucularly Julius Cesar, Diodorus Siculus and Tacitus, make mention of the severity of the winters. They give us some ex- traordinary facts, among which we shall state the annual fre ez- ing of those rivers, and the deep falls of snow. Gibbon, in his Roman history, has, in vol. 1, p. 346, this passage: "The great rivers which covered the Roman Provinces, the Rhine and the Danube, were frequently frozen over, and capable of supporting the most enormous weights. The barbarians, who often chose that severe season for their inroads, transported, without appre- hension or danger, their numerous armies, their cavalry and their heavy wagons, over a vast and solid bridge of ice."
The freezing of the Danube and Rhine happened every year. At present, it is by no means uncommon for those rivers · to be shut up, but the difference between now and the times in which Cesar, Diodorus Siculus and Tacitus lived, in the freez- ing and duration is very great. Then those rivers used to be covered with strong and solid ice, for five or six months, almost every year. The St. Lawrence, from Montreal, downwardly, hardly furnishes a parallel. In Europe, to find one, we must go as far north as St. Petersburgh, or Stockholm. 'The change in Germany, during the last sixteen hundred years, appears to have been fourteen or fifteen degrees. Changes have been nearly as great in France. In Italy they have been less, owing to its peninsular position, and to the lands having been cleared before the time of Cesar.
According to Poly bius and Livy, the Carthagenians, under Hannibal, suffered excessively from the snow and ice, in passing the Alps. In modern times, armies have often passed those mountains without experiencing any ot those difficulties. This shows, that, independent of the. badness of the roads, the climate, among those mountains, has been mollified, by culti- vating the lands.
The winters in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and we might add New-Hampshire, are much milder than they were when the first colonists came over. Then it was no un- VOL. I. 51
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usual thing to see the ground covered four months, and some: times longer, with snow, and the rivers to be covered all or nearly all that time, with ice. The harbours were frequently shut up. But a different order of things is to be seen there now. The winters are usually open and broken, the snows are less, and do not cover the ground, unless in elevated places, for a long time. The harbours are usually open. Indeed, it is looked upon rather a remarkable occurrence to see them closed up, but when this does happen, it is temporary, seldom lasting over a day. The rivers, which were formerly chained with ice all winter, have now several shuttings up and openings. In Haz- zards collection of state papers, we find this sentence-" on the fifth of April, in the year 1641, the English planters at Good Hope, (Hartford, in Connecticut) by force, prevented the Dutch from ploughing the land." In the same papers we find, that the first colonists of Hartford had well nigh perished by famine in 1636, occasioned by their ship being detained at the mouth of Connecticut river, by its early freezing. Now they plough much earlier, and the river, when it does close, closes much later. Similar changes have occurred in Vermont, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, and in some parts of Canada. These changes are in consequence of the improvements. The greatest changes have been induced, where the most extensive clearings have been made. Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, the flat country of New-Jersey and Pennsylvania afford us the best ex- amples, since, in these States, the improvements have been the greatest.
We have already made the same remarks in respect to the changes in the State of New-York. Long Island, the coun- ties within the basin of the Hudson proper, the valley of the . Mohawk, the settlements west of Oneida, as far as Genesee river, and south of the canal, to the head waters of some of the branch- es of the Susquehannah river, and about the sources of the main stream, and the Chenango branch, furnish the best illustrations. In these the most extensive clearings have been made. Now the winters are shorter, the snows not so frequent, deep, or of such duration as they were in former times.
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Climate of Long Island.
'The influence of the sea, which surrounds Long Island, ren- ders its climate more temperate, than places in the same paral- lel, in the interior. In the summer it is regularly fanned by sea breezes, which generally rise in the afternoon, but sometime before, and extend more or less across the island, according to their strength and continuance. These breezes have become so common in the winter, as to prevent the snow from covering the ground for any length of time. The west and southwest winds prevail in more than half the months in the year.
The thermometer seldom sinks below zero in winter, and seldom rises higher than ninety degrees in summer.
The mean, or average temperature of all the months in the year, at Huntington, near the middle of Long Island, in lati- tude forty degrees fifty-two minutes, appears to be as follows :---
" From the first of September 1821, to the first of September 1822, 51.20-and from the first of September 1823, to the first of September 1824, 50.40. The greatest heat, in the former year, was 94, and the greatest cold 5 degrees below zero. In the latter year, the greatest heat was 90, and the greatest cold 3 degrees above zero.
" Greatest range, in 1822, 99; and in 1824, 94.
" The state of the weather, for 455 days, from the first of September 1821, was 270 clear days, 113 cloudy, 51 rainy, and 21 snowy.
"The temperature of the water, in two wells, at Huntington, on the fifteenth of August 1823, was 53 and 50 degrees. The former was 25 feet deep, and the latter 43. The mean tem- perature of the springs and deep wells, is about 51 degrees throughout the year.
" Predominant winds at Huntington, between the first of Sep- tember 1821, and the first of September 1822. In September, October, November, December and June, the west prevailed. In January, February, March, May, July and August, the southwest ; and the east in April.
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" Between the first of September 1823, and the first of Sep- tember 1824, the east wind predominated in the months of September and March; the southwest in October, November, February, April, May, June and August ; and the west, in December, January and July.
" The courses of the winds, in the two foregoing years, were north 32, northwest 84, northeast 72, east 100, southeast 43, sonth 51, southwest 193, and west 155."
See a sketch of the first settlement of Long Island, by the Hon. Silas Wood.
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CHAPTER XIII.
WINDS.
IN this chapter we propose giving a theory of the winds of New-York. Imperfect as it may be, we think it cannot fail to be interesting to most readers. The winds have great influ- ence on the climate. In point of fact, they constitute a part of the climate of every country.
There are eight winds besides such as are local. The north- west, the north, the northeast, the east, the southeast, the south, the southwest, and the west. Of these three are general, namely, the northwest, northeast, and the east. 'The southwest is nearly general, pervading the basins of the St. Lawrence, Susquehannah and Hudson, and the valley of the Alleghany. The southeast and south, especially the former, are limited chiefly to the coast of the Atlantic, and the counties situated southerly and south- easterly of the Highlands, or Matteawan mountains ; the north is confined mostly to lakes Ontario and Champlain, and the Hudson, and their immediate basins. The west is, we believe, never general. We intend to devote a section to each of these winds.
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