In 1709, the winter was no less terrible. The ground was
frozen in France, Italy and Switzerland to the depth of several feet;
and the sea, south as well as north, was covered with one compact and
thick crust of ice, many feet deep, and for a considerable distance in
the usually open sea. Numbers of wild beasts, driven out by the cold
from their dens in the forests, sought refuge in villages and even
cities; and the birds fell dead to the ground by hundreds. In 1729,
1749 and 1769 (cycles of twenty years' duration), all the rivers and
streams were ice-bound all over France for many weeks, and all the fruit
trees perished. In 1789, France was again visited by a very severe
winter. In Paris, the thermometer stood at nineteen degrees of frost.
But the severest of all winters proved that of 1829. For fifty-four
consecutive days all the roads in France were covered, with snow several
feet deep, and all the rivers were frozen. Famine and misery reached
their climax in the country in that year. In 1839, there was again in
France a most terrific and trying cold season.
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