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At about one o'clock in the morning of Sunday, January 7, 1770, commenced a rain storm, with the wind blowing from the southeast, which caused the greatest freshet perhaps that ever occurred in New England. The weather had been very cold and dry through the month of December, and ice had formed extremely thick and strong. The storm continued with violence all through Sunday and until the next day at noon, when the clouds rolled away, and the sun again appeared. A very high tide occurred at this time and the combination of storm, wind and tide produced a freshet which caused the water to rise in many places ten feet higher than usual, and to remain at that height for several days.

A COLD northeast storm of wind, rain and snow raged along the coast of New England during the latter part of March, 1830, producing a great tide, which in some parts exceeded the highest tide remembered there. The storm began on the morning of Friday, the twenty- sixth, and continued till one o'clock in the afternoon, the tide being at its height at noon of that day.

THE winter of 1786-87 set in very early. At Warren, in Maine, on the fourteenth of November the St. George's river was frozen so hard and thick that the ice bore horses and sleighs as far down as Watson's Point, and on the following day to the mouth of the stream. It did not break up until the latter part of the following March. The sloop Warren, lying at the wharf in Thomaston and loading with a cargo for the West Indies, was frozen in and compelled to remain there all through the winter. By the twentieth of November, the harbor of Salem, Mass., was frozen over as far out as Naugus Head; and the Connecticut river was congealed so quickly that, at Middletown in that state, within twenty-four hours after boats passed over it the ice had become strong enough to bear heavy weights and people were driving on it with their horses and sleighs. Frozen into the river were between thirty and forty vessels that had been prepared for their voyages, the masters expecting to sail before the river was closed by ice. The month of December was unusually severe, and snow storms came frequently and terrifically, great quantities of snow covering the earth to a depth that impeded travel in all portions of the country. The remainder of the winter was also severe, and in the vicinity of Rockland, Me., snow remained on the ground as late as April 10, so deep and hard-crusted that teams passed over the fences in every direction without obstruction.

By running high-speed five-minute satellite scans through a carefully designed computer algorithm, the scientists can quickly analyze cloud top temperature changes to look for signs of storm formation.

THE winter of 1717-18 was acknowledged to be unusually cold, and the spring which followed was late, windy and uncomfortable. On Saturday, April 26, a violent easterly storm prevailed along the coast of Massachusetts. It was made memorable on account of the wreck of the notorious pirate ship Whidah. The commander of it was that infamous leader among freebooters, Samuel Bellamy, stories of whose brutal cruelty and daring exploits were often told about the firesides of the people here, a century and a half ago. The Whidah carried twenty-three guns and was manned by one hundred and thirty men.

IN the summer of 1635, the few English settlements scattered along the coast of New England were struggling to gain a foothold in the new world. Plymouth had indeed existed for fifteen years, but most of the villages had been founded only a few months, or a few years at the longest. On the Connecticut coast there was not a hamlet, and in the whole state in fact no settlement had been made, except at Wethersfield, on the Connecticut river. There, a few men had spent the preceding winter, their number having been increased this summer by some new colonists, who suffered for awhile with the others, and finally travelled across the wild country to Saybrook fort, the nearest place of refuge. Not another settlement could be found nearer than Plymouth, which was more than a hundred and fifty miles away, and separated therefrom by an unbroken wilderness inhabited only by Indians and wild animals. Following the coast of Massachusetts Bay, the next town beyond Plymouth was Scituate, then came Bear Cove (now Hingham) and Weymouth. The several settlements at or near the mouth of Charles river, most of them now being included in the city of Boston, came next. A short trip up the river, and a turn to the right through the woods brought Rev. Peter Bulkley and his small company to the site they had chosen for their new home, - this being the first colony that had penetrated the forest so far. In this summer of 1635 they marched into the woods and took possession of the clearing they had made, building for their shelter huts covered with bark and brushwood. Farther along the coast was Saugus (now Lynn), then came Salem, Ipswich and Newbury. At the mouth of the Piscataqua river stood Portsmouth, and up the stream was Dover. Nine miles from Portsmouth and also on the coast was York. With the exception of these few, small, defenceless settlements in the clearings of the forest along Massachusetts Bay from Plymouth to York, and of Wethersfield, in Connecticut, the entire region now incl