In the year 1781 Thomas Jefferson wrote in his "Notes on Virginia": "A change of climate is taking place very sensibly. *** Snows are less frequent and less deep. They do not often lie below the mountains more than one, two or three days, and very rarely a week. The snows are remembered to have been formerly frequent, deep, and of long continuance. The elderly inform me that the earth used to be covered with snow about three months in every year." Probably long before the white man came to America the patriarchs of the Indian tribes regaled the young men and maidens gathered about the campfire with reminiscences of the deep snows that prevailed in a previous generation. In short the "old-fashioned winter" is a _perennial myth_, perpetuated by a familiar process of self-delusion! The occasional periods of abundant snow make a more lasting impression upon our minds than the long intervals in which this element was scarce or lacking. The resulting misconception is promptly dissipated when we consult the weather records, which, in some parts of the country, extend back more than a century, and prove that there has been no actual change in the climate within the period they embrace. Of course the erroneous idea is, in some cases, due to the fact that one's childhood was spent in a part of the country in which the snowfall is normally heavier than in that where one has recently lived. The average yearly snowfall over the New England States, New York, and the borders of the Great Lakes is from 50 to 100 inches, and upward. Over the North Central States it is much less. In the Southern tier of States and along almost the whole of our Pacific coast snow is a rarity. The heaviest snowfall in this country probably occurs in the high Sierra Nevada of California, near the border of Nevada. In some places in these mountains more than 40 feet of snow falls in an average winter, while more than 65 feet has been recorded in extreme cases. Here it is a common occurrence for one-story houses to be buried, to the eaves, or above. The Southern Pacific Railway, which intersects this region, has built 32 miles of snowsheds, at a cost of $42,000 a mile over single track and $65,000 a mile over double track. In an average year $150,000 is spent on these sheds in upkeep and renewals. Flat-roofed houses are unknown in this vicinity; all roofs are gabled at a sharp angle to shed the snow. A picturesque feature of our American winters is the "ice storm," so enthusiastically described by Mark Twain: "... When a leafless tree is clothed with ice from the bottom to the top--ice that is as bright and clear as crystal; when every bough and twig is strung with ice-beads, frozen dew-drops, and the whole tree sparkles cold and white, like the Shah of Persia's diamond plume." Such is the artist's view of the phenomenon; but, alas! these same ice storms cause endless inconvenience and heavy expense every winter to the electrical industries, by breaking wires.