but such as eat flesh as Bears and Foxes c. although Nova Zembla lyeth 4 5 and 6. degrees more Southerly from the Pole then the other land aforesaid And to this purpose I remember what is related by the learned Josephus Acosta concerning the Heats and Colds in the Torrid Zone and elsewhere When I pass'd says he to the Indies I will tell what chanc'd unto me having read what Poets and Philosophers write of the burning Zone I perswaded myself that coming to the Aequinoctial I should not indure the violent heat but it fell out otherwise for when I pass'd which was when the 〈◊〉 was there for Zenith being entered into Aries in the moneth of March I felt so great a cold as I was forc'd to go into the Sun to warm me what could I else do then but laugh at Aristotles Meteors and his Philosophy seeing that in that place and at that season when as all should be scorch'd with heat according to his rules 〈◊〉 and all my companions were a cold in truth there is no Region in the world more pleasant and temperate then under the Equinoctial although it be not in all parts of an equal temperature but have great diversities The burning Zone in some parts is very temperate as in Quitto and on the plains of Peru in some parts very cold as at Potosi and in some veryhot as in Ethiopia Brasile and the Molucques And within two Chapters after he discourses more largely of some of these Particulars And again Chapter the 12. You may continually says he see upon the tops of these mountains snow hail and frozen waters and the cold so bitter as the grass is all wither'd so as the men and beasts which pass that way are benumm'd with cold This as I have said is in the burning Zone and it happens most commonly when they have the Sun for Zenith These Testimonies of a learned man that writes upon his own knowledge I thought it worth producing to make it probable that as in several Countries the heat does not always answer to the nearness of places to the Line so in Northern Regions the cold may not always be proportionate to their vicinity to the Pole In Mr. Hudsons second voyage written by himself he mentions that above 71. degrees though they were much pester'd with ice about the end of June that day when this hapned was calm clear and hot weather adding of the next day also that it was calm hot and fair weather And Acosta tells us that we see these differences not only on the land but also on the Sea there are some Seas where they feel great heat as the report of that of Mazambigus and Ormus in the east and of the Sea of Panama in the west There are other Seas in the same degree of height very cold as that of Peru in the which we were a cold when we first sail'd it which was in March when the Sun was directly over us In truth on this continent 〈◊〉 the Land and Sea are of one sort we cannot imagine any other cause of this so great a 〈◊〉 but the quality of the wind that 〈◊〉 refresh them But to multiply no more instances we shall conclude with this one That Charleton Island where Captain James winter'd and of which we so often have occasion to make mention in our History though it seems by the effects to be a colder Region then even the Countrey about Musco and perhaps as cold as Nova Zembla it self yet Captain James who had several times occasion to take the latitude of it and assignes it the same Elevation and consequently the same Distance from the Pole with Cambridge whose latitude he reckons to be 51. degrees besides minutes and whose air is very well known to be very temperate And it is remarkable that though this place whose latitude is short of 52. degrees was found uninhabitable by reason of the cold yet not only in Mr. Hudsons Voyage the writers admonish the Readers to take notice That although they ran along near the shore they found no great cold which made them think that if they had been on shore the place is temperate And yet in this place they reckon themselves to have reach'd the 78. degree of latitude And our recenter Navigations inform us that several parts of Greenland to which this newly mentioned coast belong'd are well enough inhabited And one of our English Navigators assures us that the true height of Pustozera in Russia is no less then 68. degrees and a half if not more and yet that is a town not only well inhabited but of great trade but in Hudsons voyage I find what is more strange That under the 81. degree of latitude beyond which they discovered land very far off but beyond which none is thought to have actually sail'd toward the Pole they found it during the whole day clear weather with little wind and reasonable warm And beyond 80. degrees they not only found a stream or two of fresh water but found it hot on the shore and drank water to cool their thirst which they also commended II. The next observable I am to propose about the coldness of the Air is this That the degrees both of Heat and Cold in the air may be much greater in the same climate and the same place at several seasons of the year or even at several times of the same day then most men would believe For the proof of this Proposition we shall subjoyn two sorts of Testimonies of Travellers and Navigators the former shewing that in Countries where it is very cold in Winter it may 〈◊〉 be hot in Summer and the latter manifesting that even on the same day as well as in the same place the heat and cold that succeed one another may be one of them sensible though the other were extreme or may perhaps be both of them considerable To make this good we shall produce the following Testimonies 1. Dr. Giles Fletcher English Ambassador to the Muscovian Emperor in his Treatise of Russia and the adjoyning Regions has this memorable passage to our present purpose The whole Countrey says he differeth very much from it self by reason of the year so that a man would 〈◊〉 to see the great alteration and difference betwixt the Winters and Summers in Russia The whole Countrey in the Winter lyeth under snow which falleth continually and is sometime of a yard or two thick but greater towards the North the Rivers and other waters are all frozen up a yard or more thick how swift or broad soever they be and this continueth commonly for five moneths to wit from the beginning of November till towards the end of March what time the snow beginneth to melt so that it would breed a frost in a man to look abroad at that time and see the Winters face of that Countrey And a little after he adds And yet in the Summer time
them especially since I freely acknowledge That I found the framing of an Universal and unexceptionable Hypothesis of Cold to be a work of greater difficulty then every Body would imagine especially to me to whom some Experiments purposely made have suggested a puzling Difficulty which 't is like that Philosophers have not yet thought of And whatever Applause is wont in this Age to attend a forwardness to assert Hypotheses yet though Fame were less to be sought then Truth this will not much move me whilest I observe That Hypotheses hastily pitch'd upon do seldom keep their Reputation long and divers of them that are highly Applauded at the first come after a while to be Forsaken even by those that devised them As for the Title of the following Book I call the Experiments new because indeed if I mistake not nine parts of ten not to say nineteen of twenty are so But though a 150. or 200. Experiments of that kind besides Collections from Travellers and Books that do not professedly treat of Cold may I presume allow me to have begun the natural History of Cold yet in the very Title Page I think fit to intimate that I look upon what I have done but as a Beginning For though some very noted Virtuosi have been pleased to seem surprized to see what so barren and uncultivated a subject has been brought to afford this Treatise yet I look upon these as things that do rather Promise then Present a Harvest and but as some early Sheaves of that Crop which mens future Industry will reap from a subject that is indeed Barren but not Unimprovable For I see not why it should not hold in the History of Cold as well as in many other attempts That the greatest Difficulties are wont to be met with at the Beginning and those being once surmounted the Progress becomes far more Easie. And as the Magnetick Needle though it point directly but at the North and South does yet discover to the Seaman the East and West and all the other points of the Compass So there are divers Experiments which though they do primarily and Directly teach us but a Notion or two may yet assist us to discover with ease many other Truths to which they seem'd not at first sight to afford us a Direction So that What is here already done such as it is partly by Hinting various Inquiries about Cold and partly by Suggesting ways not formerly practised of making further Experiments may possibly make it more easie for others to Add to these a number far exceeding that which they will here meet with then it would have been without such assistances which I had not to contribute to the History of Cold even such a stock as I have begun it with And this I the rather incline to think because I find that when once a Man is in the right way of making Inquiries into such subjects Experiments and Notions will reciprocally direct to one another and suggest so many things to him that if I were now to begin this work again and had Cold and fitly shap'd Glasses and Instruments with other Accommodations at command there are divers parts on which my Inlargements would not perchance be much Inferiour to what is Already extant there if they did not much Exceed it But besides That I have other work enough and that of a quite other Nature upon my hands the Truth is that I am plainly Tired with writing on this subject having never handled any part of Natural Philosophy that was so Troublesome and full of Hardships as this has proved especially because that not only the Experiments being New and many of them subject to miscarriages required to be almost constantly Watched but being unable to produce or intend Cold as we can do Heat nor command the Experiments that concern Congelation with as little difficulty as we can do those that belong to divers other subjects I was fain to Wait for and make Use of a Fit of frosty weather which has very long been a rarity as sollicitously as Pilots watch for and improve a Wind. III. It remains now that I give some account why I suffer so unfinished a piece as I acknowledge this to be to come forth at this time And I confess that if I had not preferred the gratifying the Curious before the advantages of my own Reputation I should have kept this Book in my hands some Winters longer that It might come forth both more rich and less unpolished But how great a power my Friends have with me in such cases the Reader may easily guess by the Preamble he will find prefixed to the first Title of the ensuing History For by the Date of that he will see how early my Papers about Cold were to have been communicated nor was I any thing near so much befriended as I expected by those interposing Accidents that have for above a year and a half kept those Papers lying by me For the then next and now last Winter proved so strangely Mild as to be altogether unfavourable to such a work as I had design'd Wherefore finding that Delays had done me no more service and press'd by the sollicitations of divers Virtuosi from several parts I resolved that I would suspend till another opportunity the drawing together of what I had Observed or Collected touching the Regions of the Air and some of the chief Hypotheses that are controverted about Cold with what other loose Papers touching that Quality I not could so readily dispatch to the Press and would not with-hold from the Curious what assistance my Collections could afford them to make use of this Winter to prosecute Experiments of Cold. And remembring how favorable an entertainment my former Endeavours to gratifie Ingenious Men had found among them I took a Course wherein I was more likely to obtain Thanks then Praises and chose rather to adventure on the Equity and Favour of the Reader for the Pardon of those faults and Imperfections that are imputable to Hast then to deny him the opportunity of this Cold season wherein to Examine the Truth and Supply the Deficiencies of what I had delivered And this I the rather did both because I was desirous to Quit this subject for another from which it had diverted me and for which I have more Value and Kindness and because that as a tender Constitution of Body kept me whilest I was writing the following History from adventuring upon some Trials that might probably have inrich'd it so the Continuance of the same disadvantages together with other inopportune Distempers super added to them do not permit me to Know whether and how far I shall be able to Prosecute the work I have begun and do oftentimes reduce me to be more concern'd to Shun the Effects of Cold then Observe the Phaenomena of It. And indeed whether those prove true Prophets or no that assure me I shall lose no reputation by this History as incompleat as it comes
It by reason of its being Hermetically seal'd did regularly enough descend in cold weather and ascend in 〈◊〉 But the other which was not seal'd but had a little hole left open at the Top of the Pipe though when the Atmosphaere continued of the same weight it would like the other rise with Heat and fall with Cold yet when the Atmosphaeres gravity was alter'd they would not uniformly move together but when as we gather'd from other observations the Atmosphaere grew heavier the Liquor in the Pipe did not ascend as high as it would have done if the Atmosphaere had continued in its former degree of gravitation And on the contrary when the incumbent Air came to be lighter the Liquor would rise in the open Weather-glass in a proportion greater then the single increase of heat would have exacted so that by comparing the two Weather-glasses together I did usually foretel whether the Mercury in the Torricellian Tube which I keep purposely by me in a frame were risen or fallen and consequently whether the external Air were heavier or lighter then before As on the other side by looking on the height of the Mercurial Cylinder I could easily tell before hand whether the Liquor in the open Weather-glass were higher or lower then that in the Hermetical the rising or falling of the Mercurial Cylinder one quarter of an Inch the Temperature of the Air continuing as to heat and cold usually signifying a great disparity betwixt the Ascension or the falling of the Liquors in the two Instruments Among the several notes I find among my loose papers and in a Diary I kept for a while of these observations I shall content my self to transcribe the following two because though divers others were made by my Amanuensis whose care is not to be distrusted yet by reason of my absence I could not take notice of them my self The first of these Memorandums runs thus Last night I took notice that there was but one or two Divisions difference betwixt the two Thermometers but upon such a change of Weather that happened this day as made me imagine that the Atmosphaere would be lighter then 〈◊〉 consulting the Barometer if to avoid Circumlocutions I may so call the whole Instrument wherein a Mercurial Cylinder of 29. or 30. Inches is kept suspended after the manner of the Torricellian Experiment I found the Quicksilver lower then it had been a great while and thereupon concluding there would be a notable disparity between the seal'd and open Weather-glass I hastned to them and found that the latter being much alleviated from the weight of the Incumbent Air was no less then 17. Divisions higher then the others and comparing the height the two Instruments were this day at with an observation I my self made about a week ago when the Quicksilver was much higher then now it is I found that although this afternoon the seal'd Glass being at 41 the other was at 58 yet Then when the seal'd Weather-glass was five divisions higher namely at 46 the unseal'd Weather-glass was but at 27. So that betwixt that time and this the Liquor in the seal'd Weather-glass has descended five Divisions but that in the open Weather-glass has ascended 31. Thus far the first of the above mentioned Notes the second is as follows The Mercurial Cylinder being higher then it has been a good while and yet the Weather warm and Sun-shiny when the Liquor in the seal'd Glass stood very near the 50th division that in the unseal'd was fallen down as low as the 32. So that it is very possible that the unheeded change in the weight of the external Air may have a greater power to compress the included Air in an unseal'd Weather-glass then a not inconsiderable degree of warmth may have to dilate it and consequently in an ordinary Weather-glass where the Air is included at the Top it may often fall out that contrary to what men suppose must needs happen the pendulous Water may rise in warmer weather and fall in colder And ev'n since the writing of the immediately foregoing part of this page within a few days that interven'd I have my self made observations that do yet more clearly manifest this truth as may appear by the following notes The first of which speaks 〈◊〉 Memorandum that Yesterday night the Quicksilver being at 29 Inches the Liquors in the seal'd and unseal'd Weather-glasses were near about the same Division the former being at 40 and the other being but half a Division short of that Number But this night the Quicksilver being risen about ¼ of an Inch the Liquor in the seal'd is ascended to 45 and the other descended beneath 35 about half a Division so that there is now 10 Divisions between them This is the first Note to which the following night enabled me to add this other The Quicksilver being risen almost ¾ of an Inch above the station it rested at the night before last night the Hermetical Weather-glass being as it was then above the 40 Division the Liquor in the other which was open in two days and nights is fallen to the 17 and consequently is subsided about 23 Divisions whilest the other is about the same height at which it was at the beginning of that time Two or three days after being returned to the place wherein I had made this last observation and from which some urgent Occasions had for that time exacted my absence I found the Disparity betwixt the two Thermometers that is express'd in the following Memorial This day the Quicksilver being risen to 30 Inches when the Liquor in the seal'd Weather-glass was at about 41 Divisions that in the other was depress'd a pretty deal below the Ninth Division so that the difference between the two Thermometers was increas'd since the last Observation from 23 to near 33 Divisions all which the Liquor in the open Weather-glass had sunk down whilest that in the seal'd continued almost at a stand And the day after this Memorial I had occasion to register another which being the last I shall here think requisite to take notice of in this 〈◊〉 I shall subjoyn it with that which immediately preceded in order of Time This day the Quicksilver continuing at the same height at which I observ'd it yesterday but the Weather being grown much colder the Liquor appears in both the Glasses to have uniformly enough subsided that in the seal'd Weather-glass being about the 33 and the other being sunk quite below the lowest mark of all which was more then I apprehended it would have done when there was no frost especially since by my Diary it appears that one of the last times I observ'd the Hermetical Weather-glass to stand at near about the same height namely the 34 the Liquor in the other Glass was no lower then the 41 nor probably would there be now so great a difference if the Atmosphaere had not been this day very heavy whereas when this freshly recited observation was made I find
we must not here treat indefinitely the strange effects of cold upon other bodies being most of them produc'd by the intervention of the cold first diffus'd in the Air and those are treated of in a distinct Section wherefore we shall now give two or three instances of the sudden operations of the Cold harbour'd in the Air. The formerly mention'd English Ambassador into Russia Dr. Fletcher gives us two instances very memorable to our present purpose When you pass says he out of a warm Room into a Cold you will sensibly feel your breath to wax stark and even stifling with the cold as you draw it in and out So powerfully and nimbly does the intensely refrigerated Air work upon the Organs of respiration And whereas a very credible person now chief Physician to the Russian Emperor being ask'd by me concerning the truth of what is reported sometimes to happen at Musco and is reputed the eminentest proof that is readily observable of the extreme coldness of the air assur'd me that he himself saw the water thrown up into the air fall down actually congeal'd into ice Dr. Fletcher confirms this Report For our Ambassador also says That the sharpness of the Air you may judge of by this for that water dropped down or cast up into the Air congeal'd into Ice before it come to ground And I remember that inquiring about the probability of such Relations he answered me That being at the famous Seige of Smolensko in Russia he observ'd it to be so extremely cold in the fields that his Spittle would freez in falling betwixt his mouth and the ground and that if he spit against a Tree or a piece of wood it would not stick but fall to the foot of it 17. Among the Phaenomena of Cold relating to the air I endeavour'd to observe whether upon the change of the Weather from warm or mild to cold and frosty there would appear any difference of the weight of the Atmosphere by its being plentifully furnish'd with a new stock of such frigorifick Corpuscles as several of the modern Philosophers ascribe its coldness to but though I several times observ'd by comparing a good Barometer and sometimes also unseal'd Weather-glasses furnish'd one with a tincted Liquor and the other with Quicksilver with a good seal'd Weather-glass furnished with pure spirit of Wine that upon the coming in of clear and frosty weather the Atmosphere would very early appear sensibly heavier then before and continue so as long as the cold and clear weather lasted yet by reason of some considerations and Trials that breed some scruple in me I refer the matter to more frequent and lasting observations then I yet have been able to make in which it will concern those that have a mind to prosecute such Trials not only to consider whether or no the increased gravity of the Atmosphere may not proceed from some other Cause then the coming of frigorifick Atoms into the Air but to have a special care that their Barascopes be more carefully freed from the Air that is wont to lurk in Quick silver it self as well as other Liquors then those in the making of the Torricellian Experiment Tubes usually are least that Air getting up into the deserted part of the Tube do by its expansion and contraction obtain an unsuspected interest in the rising and falling of the subjacent Mercurial Cylinder and so impose upon them 18. Another Effect that the Cold especially in Northern Countries has oftentimes upon the Atmosphere is the making the Air more or less clear then usually it is For in the Northern Voyages the Seamen frequently complain of thick and lasting Fogs whose causes I shall not now consider but some help to guess at them may be given by what we are about to add namely that it very frequently happens on the contrary That when the cold is very intense the air grows much clearer then at other times probably because the Cold by condensing precipitates the vapours that thicken the air and by freezing the surface of the earth keeps in the steams that would else arise to thicken the air Not to dispute 〈◊〉 it may not also somewhat repress the vapours that would be afforded by the water it self since some of our Navigators observe that even when it was not cold enough to freez the surface of the Sea it would so far chill and infrigidate it that the snow would lye on it without melting 19. I remember a Swedish extraordinary Ambassador and a very knowing person whom I had the honour to be particularly acquainted with would say when he saw a frosty day accompanied with great clearness that it then look'd like a Swedish winter where when once the frosty weather is setled the sky is wont for a very long time to be very serene and 〈◊〉 and here in England we usually observe the sharpest frosty nights to be the clearest But to confirm our Observation by a very remarkable instance I shall borrow it 〈◊〉 a Navigator very curious of Celestial Observations which circumstance I mention to bring the greater credit to the following observation of Captain James which in his Journal is thus delivered The thirtieth and one and thirtieth of January there appeared in the beginning of the night more Stars in the Firmanent then ever I had before seen by two thirds I could see the Cloud in Cancer full of small Stars 20. To determine what effect the coldness of the air may have upon the Refractions of the Luminaries and other Stars I look upon as a work of no small difficulty and that would require much consideration as well as time wherefore I shall only add two or three narratives supplied me by Navigators without adding at present any thing to the matters of fact 21. The first is that famous Observation of the Dutch in Nova Zembla who take great pains to evince by several circumstances some of them highly probable that they were not mistaken in their account of time according to which they concluded that they saw the Sun whom they had lost sight of eleven weeks before about fourteen days sooner then he ought to have appear'd to them which difference has been for ought I know to the contrary by all that have taken notice of it ascrib'd to the strangely great Refraction in that Gelid and Northern air 22. And as for that other extremely cold Country where Captain James wintered it appears by his Journal that he there made divers Celestial and other observations which gave him opportunity to take notice of the Refraction and he seems to complain that he found it very great though among the particulars he takes notice of there are some that seem not very strange nor are there any that are near so wonderful as that newly mention'd of the Hollanders in Nova Zembla however in regard of the extreme coldness of the Winter air in Charleton Island it may be worth while to take notice of the following passages
beget some Diffidence in wary men they would not be proper for the title of this Section and most of them that they may be fit to be plac'd here must be the Effects of such extreme degrees of Cold that I cannot in this temperate Climate of ours examine the truth of them by my own Trials so that all I can do is to make choice of such Relations as are almost all of them delivered by the Relators as upon their own Knowledge And even this may perchance not only gratifie and excite the Curiosity of some who are pleas'd with no things so much as with those that have somewhat in them of Prodigy and which is more considerable their Narratives may afford the Ingenious such strange Phaenomena that the Explication of them may serve both to exercise their wits and try their Hypothesis 2. It seems not necessary in the marshalling these observations to be scrupulous about method but yet to avoid confusion we shall first mention the Effects of Cold as to those four great Bodies of that part of the Sublunary World we live in that are commonly reputed Elements and thence we will proceed to take notice of the Effects of Cold upon some other inanimate Bodies and for an instance of its operation on living Creatures upon men 3. Of the power of Cold either to straiten the sphere of activity of fire or to hinder its wonted effects the chief examples I have met with are recorded partly by the Dutch in Nova Zembla and partly by Captain James when he winter'd in Charleton Island These Hollanders in one place speak thus The twentieth it was fair and still weather the wind Easterly then we wash'd our Sheets but it was so cold that when we had wash'd and wrung them they presently froze so stiff that although we laid them by a great fire the side that laid next the fire thaw'd but the other side was hard frozen c. Elsewhere thus We were in great fear that if the extremity of the Cold grew to be more and more we should all dye there with cold for what fire soever we made it would not warm us And because it were tedious to transcribe all that their Journals afford us to our present purpose we will conclude with this passage Hereby we were so fast shut up into the House as if we had been prisoners and it was so extreme Cold that the fire almost cast no heat for as we put our feet to the fire we burnt our hose before we could feel the heat so that we had work enough to do to patch our hose and which is more if we had not sooner smelt then felt them we should have burnt them ere we had known it Though Captain James wintred in a Countrey many degrees remoter from the Pole then Nova Zembla yet in one place he gives us this account of the colds power to restrain or oppose the action of fire The Cooks Tubs wherein he did water his meat standing about a yard from the fire and which he did all day ply with melted snow water yet in the night season while he slept but one watch would they be firm frozen to the very Bottom And therefore was he fain to water his meat in a Brass Kettle close adjoyning to the fire and I have many times both seen and felt by putting my hand into it that side which was next the fire was very warm and the other an inch frozen I leave the rest to our Cook who will almost speak miracles of the Cold. 3. Thus far our Enlish Navigator whose relation compar'd with those of the Hollanders make me not so much wonder as I once did that men should relate to Marcus Polus that there is a certain Plain in Tartary situated between some of the highest mountains in the World where if fire be kindled it is not so bright nor so effectual to boil any thing as in other places For so Purchase renders that passage whence occasion has been taken to impute to Marcus Polus a writer not always half so fabulous as many think him that he affirm'd that there was a Countrey in Tartary where fire could not be kindled 4. And as for the other newly mention'd relations of Seamen and Travellers though to us that live in England they cannot but seem very strange yet I am kept from rejecting them as utterly incredible by considering that ice and snow having before their Congelation been water must in probability owe their Coldness to that which reign'd in the Air So that if in any place Nature has either so plentifully stock'd the Air it self with frigorisick exspirations or other Corpuscles if we will admit any such or have upon any other account rendred it as cold as it can make ice and snow to be even here amongst us I know not why the Northerness of the climate and perhaps some saline expirations from the Earth and Sea may not there diffuse through the air a cold superior to that which by small Quantities of ice or snow and salt can at a small distance be produc'd here And this cold is so intense that by pouring some water on a Joynt-stool and placing on it a silver Tankard or other convenient vessel we may as experience has assur'd me with beaten ice or snow and salt and a little water which is added to hasten the solution of the other nimbly stirr'd together in the pot make the mixture freez the external water quite through the Tankard and they may be by this way so hard frozen together as that by lifting up the pot you may lift up the Joynt-stool too and that which is the circumstance for which I mention this just by the fire which in this case is unable to hinder so difficult an operation of the Cold. 5. Thus much of the effects of cold in reference to fire What the same quality may perform upon Air we shall say but little of in this place because we treat of those Phaenomena partly in the foregoing Section of the coldness of the Air and partly in other places Only we shall not here pretermit a testimony of the learned Olearius who as an eye witness confirms what we elsewhere deliver of the high degree of cold to which the Air may be brought For he tells us That in Muscovy he experimentally found that which others left recorded in their writings That ones spittle would be congeal'd before it reach'd the ground and that water would freez as it was dropping down 6. Of the effects of cold upon water we shall not need to say much in this place since the two notablest of them being the power cold has to congeal water suddenly and the force it has to turn vast quantities of it into sollid ice Of the former I have newly given out of Olearius an example as eminent as almost any that is to be met with and of the latter also I have given several instances in the Section
that treats of ice Yet two or three notable instances which we do not elsewhere mention 't will not be improper to deliver in this place 7. The first declares that notwithstanding the warmth of the inside of a mans mouth his spittle may be frozen even there The 27. of September they are the words of Gerat de Veer it blew hard Northeast and it froze so hard that as we put a nail into our mouthes as when men work Carpenters work they use to do there would Ice hang thereon when we took it out again and make the blood follow The like relation if I misremember not I have met with in a modern English Navigator and it is very little if at all more strange then what is affirm'd by Queen Elizabeths Ambassador to the Russian Emperor In the extremity of winter says Doctor Fletcher speaking of Muscovia if you hold a pewter Dish or Pot in your hand or any other mettal except in some chamber where their warm Stoves be your fingers will stick fast to it and draw off the skin at the parting 8. The other instance I intended to mention is this that though Macrobius and other learned men both ancient and modern will not allow salt water to be congealable yet the Dutch at Nova Zembla relate that even in the midst of September and a the Marginal note says in a night It froze two inches thick in the salt water 9. As to the effects of violent colds upon the Earth what they would prove upon pure and Elementary Earth if any such there be I can but conjecture but as for that impure or mingled Earth which we commonly tread on the effects of extreme cold upon that may be very notable For Olearius relates that in the year 1634. the cold was so bitter at Musco that in the great market-place he saw the ground open'd by it so that there was made a cleft of many yards long and a foot broad And the present great Duke of Muscovies Physician being asked by me concerning the truth of such relations answered me that he himself had in those parts seen the ground reduc'd by the cold to gape so wide that a childs head might well have been put into the cleft 10. 'T is somewhat strange that the violent heat of Summer and the extreme cold of Winter should both of them be able to produce in the ground the like effects but whether to make these gaping chinks that we have been speaking of the surface of the ground expos'd to the air being first frozen is afterwards broken by the expansive force of the moist earth underneath to which the cold at length pierces and congealing it makes it swell and heave and so burst or cleave the hard and frozen crust of the ground which cannot sufficiently yield to it whether this I say may produce the clefts we were speaking of or whether they must be deriv'd from some other cause not having yet made the experiments I thought upon to clear the matter one way or other I do not as yet pretend to determine but will rather subjoyn the second observation I purpos'd to mention of a strange operation of Cold upon the ground and it is afforded us by the Dutch in their often quoted third voyage to Nova Zembla In one place of which they tell us That when they had built them a wooden house and were going to shut themselves up in it for the winter they made a great fire without the house therewith to thaw the ground that they might so lay it viz. the wood about the house that it might be the closer but it was all lost labour for the earth was so hard and frozen so deep into the ground that they could not thaw it and it would have cost them too much wood and therefore they were forced to leave off that labour 11. After what we have said about the strange effects of cold in reference to fire air water and earth we will now proceed to take notice of its effects upon confessedly compounded Bodies whether inanimate or living but of the former sort of mix'd Bodies I mean those that have not Life it will not be necessary to say much in this Section in regard that we have in many other places upon several occasions had opportunities to mention already most of the particulars that belong to that head For we elsewhere take notice that violent Colds will freez Beer Ale Vinegre Oyl common Wine and even Sack and Alegant themselves We have likewise noted that the Cold may have a notable operation upon Wood Bricks Stone vessels of Glass Earth and even Pewter and Iron themselves to which Bartholinus out of Janus Muncks Voyage to Greenland allows us to add vessels of Brass though these are not immediately broken by the Cold but by the included Liquors which it dilates and divers strange effects of Cold upon inanimate Bodies which 't were here troublesome to recapitulate may be met with dispers'd in several places of the present History Wherefore having only intimated in general that though many plants are preserv'd by a moderate cold yet it has been observ'd that most Garden-plants are destroy'd by excessive degrees of it we will pass on to consider the effects of Cold upon animals and of the many observations that we have met with among Travellers concerning this subject we shall to avoid prolixity deliver only the considerablest and those that we find attested by very credible Writers 12. Captain James speaking of the last of the three differences he makes of Cold namely that which he and his company felt in the woods gives this account of it As for the last it would be so extreme that it was not endurable no clothes were proof against it no motion could resist it It would moreover so freez the hair of our Eye-lids that we could not see and I verily believe that it would have stifled a man in a very few hours 13. Olearius giving an account of the Air of Muscovy and especially the Capital City of it The Cold says he is there so violent that no Furs can hinder it but sometimes mens Noses and Ears Feet and Hands will be frozen and all fall off He adds that in the year 1634. when he was there they could not go 50. paces without being benumm'd with cold and in danger of losing some of their Limbs And yet to add that remarkable observation upon the by the same Author near the same place speaking of Musco and the neighbouring Provinces distinguished from the rest of that vast Empire says That the Air is good and healthy so that there one scarce ever hears of the Plague or any other Epidemical diseases And he adds that for that reason when in the year 1654. the Plague made havock in that great City the thing was very surprizing nothing like it having been seen there in the memory of men 14. Our already divers times mention'd English
but scarce credible that though the Cold has such strange and Tragical effects at Musco and elsewhere in Cold Countries as we have formerly mention'd especially a little after the beginning of this 18. and somewhere in the 19. Section yet this happens to the Russians and Livonians themselves who not only by living in such a Countrey must be accustomed to bitter Colds but who to harden themselves to the Cold have us'd themselves and thereby brought themselves to be able to pass to a great degree of Cold from no less a degree of heat without any visible prejudice to their healths For I remember that having inquired of a Virtuoso of unquestionable credit whether the report of our Merchants concerning this strange custom of the Muscovites and Livonians were certainly true he assur'd me that it was so at least as to the Livonians among whom being in their Countrey he had known it practis'd And the same was affirmed to me by an ingenious person a Doctor of Divinity that had occasion some years since to make a journey to Musco And the Tradition is abundantly confirm'd by Olearius whose Testimony we shall subjoyn because this seems one of the eminentest and least credible instances that we have yet met with of the strange power that custom may have even upon the Bodies of men ' T is a wonderful thing says he to see how far those Bodies speaking of the Russians that are accustomed and hardned to the Cold can endure heat and how when it makes them ready to faint they go out of their Stoves stark naked both men and women and cast themselves into cold water or cause it to be pour'd upon their Bodies and even in Winter wallow in the Snow To which passage our Author adds from his own observation particular Examples of the Truth of what he delivers 6. I had several years since the curiosity to try whether there were any truth in that tradition which is confidently affirm'd and experience by some is pretended for it that the Beams of the Moon are cold but though I were not able to find any such matter either by the ununited beams of the Moon or by the same beams concentred by such Burning-glasses as I then had yet having some years after furnish'd my self with 〈◊〉 large and extraordinary good mettalline Concave I resolv'd to try whether those beams were not only devoid of cold but also somewhat warmish since they are the Sun-beams though reflected from the Moon And we see that his beams though reflected from glasses not shap'd for Burning may yet produce some not insensible degree of warmth But notwithstanding my care to make my Trials in clear weather when the Moon was about the full and if I misremember not with a Weà ther-glass I could not perceive by any concentration of the Lunar beams no not upon a black object that her light did produce any sensible degree either of cold or heat but perhaps others with very large glasses may be more succesful in their Trials 7. On this occasion I shall add that meeting the other day in a Booksellers shop with the works of the Learned Physician Sanctorius whom I look upon as an inquisitive man considering when and where he liv'd a Picture drew my eyes to take off an Experiment whereby he thinks to evince the light of the Moon to be considerably hot which he says he tri'd by a Burning-glass through which the Moons light being cast upon the Ball of a common Weather-glass the water was thereby depressed a good way as appear'd to many of his disciples amidst whom the observation was made But though this may invite me when opportunity shall serve to repeat my Trials yet I must till then suspend my assent to his Conclusion For my Burning-glass was much better then by the Narrative his seems to have been and my Trials were perhaps at least as carefully and impartially made as his Experiment in which this may probably have impos'd upon him That performing the Experiment a company of his Scholars whilest they stood round about his Thermoscope and stoop'd as in likelihood their curiosity made them to do to see by so dim a light the event of the Experiment the unheeded warmth of their breath and bodies might unawares to Sanctorius somewhat affect the Air included in the Weather-glass and by 〈◊〉 it cause that depression of the water which he ascrib'd to the Moon beams But because this is a conjecture I intend if God permit to repeat the Experiment when I shall have opportunity to do with a more tender Weather-glass then I had by me when I made my former Observations To the XI Title BY the unsuccesfulness of the former attempts made with an Iron instrument I was invited especially being at another place where I was unfurnish'd with such hollow Iron balls as are mention'd Num. the 10. to substitute the following Experiment I caus'd a skilful Smith to take a Pistol barrel guess'd to be of about two foot in length and of a proportionable bore and when he had by riveting in a piece of Iron exactly stopp'd the touch-hole I caus'd him to fit to the nose of the barrel a screw to go as close as well he could make it and then having fill'd it to the very top with water I caus'd the screw to be thrust in which could not be done without the Effusion of some of the water as forcibly as the Party I imploy'd was able to do it that the water dilated by Congelation might not either drive out the screw or get between it and the top of the Barrel and having then suspended this barrel in a perpendicular posture in the free Air in a very cold 〈◊〉 which then unexpectedly happen'd and gave me the 〈◊〉 of making the trial I found the next morning that the 〈◊〉 water had thrust out a great part of the screw notwithstanding that to fill up intervals I had oyl'd it before and was got out betwixt the remaining part of it and the barrel as appear'd by some ice that was got out and stuck round about the screw wherefore the bitter cold continuing one day longer I did the next night cause the intervals that might be left betwixt the male and female screws to be fill'd up with melted Bees wax which I presum'd would keep the screw from being turn'd by the water and having in other points proceeded as formerly I found the next morning that the screw held as I desir'd and the preceding night having been exceeding bitter the cold had so forcibly congeal'd and expanded the water that it burst the Iron barrel somewhat near the top and made a considerable and oblique crack in it about which a pretty quantity of ice appear'd to stick besides that there were three or four other flaws at some of which smaller quantities of water appear'd to have got out At the same time that I bespoke this Iron Barrel of the Smith I order'd him to get me a brass
should have made more Trials at least if not also more satisfactory ones if I could have had Fishes and vessels and cold weather at command But upon the whole matter though the Tradition we have been examining may perhaps have some thing of truth in it yet it seems to deserve to be further inquired into both in reference to the truth of the matter of fact the death of Fishes in frozen Ponds and Rivers and in reference to the cause whereto that effect is imputed I met with an odd passage in Captain James's voyage which if it had been circumstantially enough set down might prove of moment in reference to the weight of bodies frozen and unfrozen and therefore though I would not build any thing on it yet I shall not omit it The ninth says he we hoisted out our Beer and Cydar and made a Raft of it fastning it to our shore-Anchor The Beer and Cydar sunck presently to the ground which was nothing strange to us for that any wood or pipe-staves that had layen under the ice all Winter would also sinck down so soon as ever it was heav'd over board About the duration of ice I forgot through hast to add a relation of Capt. James whereby it may appear That though Wine abounds with very spirituous and nimble parts whence it resists congelation far more then water yet if even this liquor came once to be congeal'd the ice made of it may be very durable For he sets down in his Journal that when he came to his Ship again he found a But of Wine that had been all the Winter in the upper deck to continue as yet all firm frozen though it were then the moneth of May. When I treated of the great proportion in some pieces of ice that were aground instead of taking notice of the great piece of ice mention'd by Gerard de Veer to be 52. fathom deep the passage that was to be transcrib'd was this other hard by which contains two examples of towers of ice where the extant part reach'd upwards more then half as much as the immersed part reach'd downwards We saw says he another great piece of ice not far from us lying fast in the Sea that was as sharp above as if it had been a Tower whereunto we rowed and casting out our lead we found that it lay 20. fathom fast on the ground under the water and 12. fathom above the water We rowed to another piece of ice and cast out our Lead and found that it lay 18. fathom deep fast on the ground under the water and 10. fathom above the water That snow lying long and too long on the ground does much conduce to the fertilizing of it is a common observation of our Husbandmen And Bartholinus in his Treatise of the use of snow brings several passages out of Authors to make it good to which I shall add the testimony of our learned English Ambassador Dr. Fletcher who speaking of the fruitfulness of the soil and hasty growth of many things in the great Empire of Russia gives this account of it This fresh and speedy growth of the Spring there seemeth to proceed from the benefit of the snow which all the Winter time being spread over the whole Country as a white robe and keeping it warm from the rigour of the frost in the Spring time when the Sun waxeth warm and dissolveth it into water doth so throughly drench and soak the ground that it is somewhat of a slight and sandymold and then shineth so hotly upon it again that it draweth the herbs and plants forth in great plenty and variety in a very short time As we made some Trials to discover whether congelation would destroy or considerably alter the odors of bodies so we had the like curiosity in reference to divers other qualities not only those that are reputed manifest as colours and tastes the latter of which we sometimes found to be notably chang'd for the worse in flesh congeal'd but also those that are wont to be call'd occult and among the qualities of this sort I had particularly a mind to try whether the purging faculty of Catharticks would be advanc'd or impair'd or destroy'd by congelation and for this purpose I caus'd to be expos'd thereunto divers purging liquors some of a more benigne and some of a brisker nature and that in differing forms as of syrup decoction infusion c. But for want of opportunity to try upon the bodies of animals what change the cold had made in the purging liquors it had congeal'd I was unable to give my self an account of the success of such Experiments only since in some of these Trials I had a care to make use of Cathartick liquors prepar'd by fermentation which way of preparing them is it self a thing I elsewhere take notice of as not unworthy to be prosecuted I shall add on this occasion that fermentation is so noble and important a subject that the influence of cold upon it may deserve a particular inquiry And I am invited to think that that influence may be very considerable partly by my having observ'd upon a Trial purposely made both that Raisins and water with which I was us'd to make Artificial Wines did not in many days whilest the weather was very frosty so much as manifestly begin to ferment though the water were kept fluid and partly by my having observ'd that Beer will continue as it were new and be kept from being as they call it ready to drink much longer then one would readily suspect if very frosty weather supervene before it have quite finished its fermentation insomuch that an experienc'd person of whom I afterwards inquir'd about this matter assur'd me that Beer not duly ripe would not sometimes in five or six weeks of very frosty weather be brought to be as ripe as in one week of warm and friendly weather But we have a nobler instance to our present purpose if that be true which I learn'd from an intelligent Frenchman whom I consulted about this matter For according to this experienc'd person the way to keep Wine in the Must in which state its sweetness makes it desir'd by many is to take newly express'd juice of Grapes and having turn'd it up before it begins to work to let down the vessels which ought to be very carefully clos'd to the bottom of some deep Well or River for six or eight weeks during which time the liquor will be so well setled if I may so speak in the constitution it has so long obtain'd that afterwards it may be kept in almost the same state and for divers moneths continue a sweet and not yet fermented liquor which some in imitation of the French and Latins call in one word Must. And how by the help of Cold well appli'd some other juices that are wont to work early and to be thereby soon spoil'd may be long kept from working the Reader may perchance learn in