Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 November 1882 — FORTY DAYS OF SNOW. [ARTICLE]

FORTY DAYS OF SNOW.

Remarkable Celd Winters in the Past. Scientific American: The following statistics of the good old winters are curious: In 408 the Black Sea was entirely frozen over. In 761, not only the Black Sea but the Straits of the Dardeneiles were frozen over; the snow in some places rose fifty feet nigh. In 822 the great rivers of Europe—the Danube and Elbe, etc. were so hard frozen as to bear heavy wagons for a month. Ii; 860 the Adriatic was frozen. In 991 everything was frozen ; the crops to ally failed, and famine and pestilence closed the year. In 1067 the most of the travelers were frozen to death on the roads. In 1133 the Bo was frozen from Cremona to the sea; the wine casks were burst, and even tne trees split by the action of the frost with immense noise. In 1236 the Danube was frozen to the bottom, and remained long in that state. In 1316 tne crops wholly failed in Germany; wheat, which some years before sold in England at 6s the quar ter, rose to £2. In 1489 the crops failed in Scotland, and such a famine ensued that the poor were reduced to feed on grass, and manv perished miserably in the fields. The success ire winters of 1432 33 34 were uncommonly severe. It once snowed forty days without interruption. In 1468, the wine distributed to the soldiers in Flanders was cut with hatchets. In 1684 the winter was excessively cold. Most of the hollies were killed. Coaches drove along the Thames, the ice of which was eleven iches thick. In 1709 occurred the cold winter. The frosts penetrated three yards into'the ground. 1715 booths were erected and fairs held on the lhames. In 1744 and 174 > the strongest ale in England, exposed to the air, was cov* ered in less than fifteen minutes with | ice an eighth of an inck thick. In 11809 and again in 1812 the winters were remarkably cold. In 1814 there was a fair on the frozen Thames. Old Chief Pocotello, now at the Fort Hall agency, in answer to an in quiry relative to the Christian charac ter of a former Indian agent at that place, gave in very terse language the most accurate description jf a hypocrite that was ever given to the public. “Ugh! too much God and no flour.”'—[Laramie Boomerang. An intelligent canary, which belongs to a Nova Scotia damsel, one day found tho water in its glass too low to reach, and, after several unsuccessful attempts to drink, hopped on its perch and sat quietly for a few minutes. Suddenly it turned round, pulled a loose feather out of its tail and dipped the tip into the water putting its claw crosswise on the feather, and wetting its back in the moisture. The canary repeated the trick several times, till its thirst was