variable. Mr.
Simonds writes, under date March 6, 1769:--

"Have had but little snow this winter, but few days that the
ground has been covered. Have got to the water side a large
quantity of wood and wharf logs; about 300 Hogshead Lime Stone to
the Kiln, and should have had much more if there had been snow.
Our men have been so froze and wounded that we have not had more
than three men's constant labour to do this and sled sixty loads
of hay from the marsh, saw boards for casks, look after cattle and
draw firewood. Shall continue drawing or draging wood and stone as
long as the ground is frozen, and then cut the timber for a
schooner and boat stone for a Lime Kiln, which with the wharf will
take 400 tons."

The next winter was of a different sort, for Mr. Simonds writes on May
10, 1770, "This spring has been so backward that there has been no
possibility of burning any lime. The piles of wood and stone are now
frozen together." The next winter was extremely mild, and Mr. Simonds
writes on February 18, 1771, "There has not been one day's sledding
this winter, and the season is so far advanced there cannot be much
more than enough to get the hay from the marsh; but shall haul logs to
finish the wharf and for plank for Fish Cisterns if it can by any
means be done."

The popular idea that the climate of this Province was much more
severe in ancient than in modern days is not borne out by the
correspondence of Simonds & White with Hazen & Jarvis. From it we
learn that 140 years ago the navigation of the River St. John, as now,
opened early in April, and that the river could be relied on as a
winter route of communication to St. Anns "only between the first of
January and the last of February and then many times difficult." In
the extracts just quoted Mr. Simonds states that during the winter of
1769 there had been but few days that the ground was covered with
snow, and two years later he says that up to the 18th of February
there had not been a single day's sledding. This testimony does not at
all accord with the popular idea of an old-fashioned winter. It is not
likely that there have been any material changes in the climate of
this region since the days of Champlain, and this conclusion is
strengthened by the fact that the weather reports made to the Dominion
government since the time of Confederation do not indicate any
alteration in our climatic conditions during the last 35 years.

The first