Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/124

114 continuance. The elderly inform me, the earth uſed to be covered with ſnow about three months in every year. The rivers, which then ſeldom failed to freeze over in the courſe of the winter, ſcarcely ever do ſo now. This change has produced an unfortunate fluctuation between heat and cold, in the ſpring of the year, which is very fatal to fruits. From the year 1741 to 1769, an interval of twenty-eight years, there was an inſtance of fruit killed by the froſt in the neighborhood of Monticello. An intenſe cold, produced by conſtant ſnows, kept the buds locked up till the ſun could obtain, in the ſpring of the year, ſo fixed an aſcendency as to diſſolve thoſe ſnows, and protect the buds, during their developement, from every danger of returning cold. The accumulated ſnows of the winter remaining to be diſſolved all together in the ſpring, produced thoſe overflowings of our rivers, ſo frequent then, and ſo rare now.

Having had occaſion to mention the particular ſituation of Monticello for other purpoſes, I will juſt take notice that its elevation affords an opportunity of ſeeing a phænomenon which is rare at land, though frequent at ſea. The ſeamen call it looming. Philoſophy is as yet in the rear of the ſeamen, for ſo far from having accounted for it, ſhe has not given it name. Its principal effect is to make diſtant objects appear larger, in oppoſition to the general law of viſion, by which they are diminiſhed. I know an inſtance, at Yorktown, from whence the water proſpect eaſtwardly is without termination, wherein a canoe with three men, at a great diſtance was taken for a ſhip with its three maſts. I am little acquainted with the phenomenon as it ſhows itſelf at ſea; but at