Note Book IV. Chap. 12. Note (c) — BOOK IV. (continued 2)

[c] Mirantur plurimi quomodo tutè, & sanè vivant homines in horrendis frigoribus plagæ Septentrionalis; hancque levem quæstionem ultra 30 annos audieram in Italia, præsertim ab Æthiopibus, & Indis, quibus onerosus videtur vestitus sub Zonâ terridâ.——Quibus respondetur,——Gaudet Indus multiplici plumarum genere, magìs forsan pro tegumento, quàm necessitate: rursus Scytha villoso vestitu——Ita sub polo Arctico adversùs asperrimas hyemes——opportuna remedia faciliter administrat [Natura]. Ligna videlicet in maxima copia, & levissimo pretio, & demum Pelles diversorum animalium, tam sylvestrium quàm domesticorum. Then he gives a Catalogue of them, and saith, Quarum omnium experti pellifices ita ingeniosè noverunt mixturas componere, ut pulcherrimum decorum ostendat varietas, & calidissimum fomentum adjuncta mollities. Ol. Mag. Hist. l. 6. c. 20.

To this Guard against the Cold, namely, of Fire and Cloathing; I hope the Reader will excuse me, if I take this Opportunity of adding some other Defensatives Nature, (or rather the great Author of Nature,) hath afforded these northern Regions: Such are their high Mountains, abounding, as Ol. Magnus saith, through all Parts; also their numerous Woods, which besides their Fire, do, with the Mountains, serve as excellent Screens against the Cold, piercing Air and Winds. Their prodigious Quantities of Minerals, and Metals, also afford Heat, and warm Vapours, Mineræ septentrionalium regionum satìs multæ, magnæ, diversæ, & opulentæ sunt, saith the same curious, and (for his Time,) learned Archbishop, l. 6. c. 1. and in other Places. And for the Warmth they afford, the Volcano’s of those Parts are in Evidence; as are also their terrible Thunder and Lightning, which are observ’d to be the most severe and mischievous in their metalline Mountains, in which large Herds of Cattle are sometimes destroy’d; the Rocks so rent and shatter’d, that new Veins of Silver are thereby discover’d; and a troublesome Kind of Quinsie is produc’d in their Throats, by the stench, and poisonous Nature of the sulphureous Vapours, which they dissolve, by drinking warm Beer and Butter together, as Olaus tells us in the same Book, Chap. 11.

To all which Defensatives, I shall, in the last Place add, the warm Vapours of their Lakes, (some of which are prodigiously large, of 130 Italian Miles in Length, and not much less in Breadth;) also of their Rivers, especially the Vapours which arise from the Sea. Of which Guard against severe Cold, we have lately had a convincing Proof in the great Frost, in 1708, wherein, when England, Germany, France, Denmark; yea, the more southerly Regions of Italy, Switzerland, and other Parts suffer’d severely, Ireland and Scotland felt very little of it, hardly more than in other Winters; of the Particulars of which, having given an Account in the Phil. Trans. Nᵒ. 324. I shall thither refer the Reader. But it seems this is what doth ordinarily befal those northern Parts; particularly the Islands of Orkney, of which the learned Dr. Wallace gives this Account: Here the Winters are generally more subject to Rain than Snow; nor doth the Frost and Snow continue so long here, as in other Parts of Scotland; but the Wind in the mean Time will often blow very boisterously; and it Rains sometimes, not by Drops, but by spouts of Water, as if whole Clouds fell down at once. In the Year 1680, in the Month of June, after great Thunder, there fell Flakes of Ice near a Foot thick. Wall. Account of Ork. Chap. 1. p. 4. From which last Passage I observe; That although in those Parts, the Atmosphere near the Earth be warm, it is excessively cold above; so as to freeze some of those Spouts of Water in their Descent, into such great, and almost incredible Masses of Hail. And whence can this Warmth proceed, but from the Earth, or Sea, emitting Heat sufficient to stave off the Cold above? Consult Book II. Chap. 5. Note (c).