Page:New Brunswick Magazine Issue 1.djvu/165

is not borne out by the correspondence of Simonds and White. From it we learn that 130 years ago the navigation of the river, as now, opened early in April and that the river could be relied on as a winter route to St. Anns "only between the first of January and the last of February and then many times difficult." The winters were frequently quite as mild as they are now. For example on March 6, 1769, Mr. Simonds wrote: "We had but little snow this winter, but few days that the ground has been covered"; and to show that this was not a very rare instance of a mild season we quote from another letter dated February, 18, 1771, in which he says: "There has not been one day's sledding this winter and as the season is so far advanced there cannot now be much more than enough to get the hay from the marsh at best."

These quotations do not by any means bear out the popular notion of an "old fashioned winter." The fact is that the climate of New Brunswick has not materially changed since the period of its first settlement, and this conclusion is substantiated by the weather observations which have been made by the Dominion government during the past thirty years, or since the time of the confederation of the province.

Partridge Island battery, which has been dismantled for some years, is to be equipped with modern guns, it is said. It was originally put there about 1812, and was remodelled in 1858. The guns put there in the latter year consisted of five 68 pounders and five 8 inch guns. These took the place of the 25 pounders which had been there before. The lighthouse stands within the confines of the battery.