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Show THE YEAR WITHOUT A SUMMER. I As the springtime of 1816 approached nothing in the weathor Indicated the return of Beed time, much less of harvest har-vest Snows, heavy rains and cold winds prevailed Incessantly, and during dur-ing the entire season the sun roso each morning as though in a cloud of smoke, red and rayless, shedding little light or warmth and setting at night as behind a thick cloud of vapor, leaving hardly a trace of Its having passed over the faco of the earth. Tho frost never wont off the ground until about tho last of May. The farmers planted their crops, hut the scod would hardly sprout, and when at last it onrno to tho surface there was not warmth enough to causo anything to grow. During the month of Juno young birds were frozen to deoth In thoir nests, and so great was their destruction that for at least three years after very few birds visited tho coldor parts ot tho northern states. The woods and forests scorned deserted desert-ed by them. Small fruits such as tho jiinebqrry ripened and rotted on tho trees in' tho forests because of no birds to eat them. Crops that requtroJ warmth, like corn, generally failed to mature, aud only here and there In a fow placca that Hccmed especially protected did an oar ripen. The people, after repeated re-peated hopes or a change In tho weather, weath-er, settled down in almost doapalr. Large spots appeared on the face of the Btin. us seen through the smoky atmosphere, distinctly visible with tho nuked eye; frosts prevailed every month tho whole year and- nlmost daily, and in the few places whoio com ripened was the only supply of seed for tlp next year, and it wns hold at an exceedingly high figure, with now and then an exception. Magazine of American History. |