188 MR SBLBY ON THE WINTER OF 1838. 



resume its course. If there is a tendency to fresh weather, the stream 

 will be increased in volume according to the duration of the previous 

 stoppage, as was the case on the afternoon of November 27. and the fol- 

 lowing day, in the Kale and the Teviot. If the frost continues, the waters 

 again flow beneath the ice, although cut off from any other supply than what 

 the natural channel of the brook receives from the springs which open 

 into it. This kind of obstruction can scarcely take place in a very flat 

 country, because the waters have higher banks and fewer streams, and 

 of course few natural weirs, and bjecause the boggy ground through which 

 they flow, affords a natural protection to the springs upon their banks 

 from the roughness of the herbage. This accounts for the rivers Eden 

 and Leet not being subject to such a stoppage. This principle is well 

 known and acted upon by gardeners and farmers the former putting 

 rough grass or straw over his tender vegetables in winter, and the lat- 

 ter in frosty weather ploughing his roughest pasture, when bare ground 

 is quite impenetrable. This appears to be the most probable explanation 

 of the phenomenon, but at any rate there can be no doubt of frost being 

 the agent ; and the dryness of the channel can only be occasioned by the 

 water running off while the supply from above is withheld. 



On the effects produced upon Animal and Vegetable Life, by the Winter 

 0/1838. By P. J. SELBY, Esq. of Twizel House. 



The severity with which the year was ushered in by the long con- 

 tinued frost during the months of January, February, and a part of 

 March ; the cold and long retarded spring, succeeded by a chilly and 

 ungenial summer, as well as a late and deficient harvest, place the year 

 1838 upon our records as one of peculiar, though happily of unwonted 

 character. Under circumstances of such a nature, and which it is more 

 than probable, may not again occur during the limit of the present ge- 

 neration, a few observations upon the effects of so severe a season, as con- 

 nected with animal as well as vegetable life, more particularly as affecting 

 our own district, may perhaps prove not altogether uninteresting to the 

 members of the Club. It will be in the recollection of those who at- 

 tended to the weather, that, up to the 5th of January 1838, the season, 

 with the exception of the first week of the previous November, when we 

 experienced a severe but cursory snow storm, had upon the whole been 

 temperate and mild : this was particularly the case on Christmas, and 

 two or three following days, wheu the thermometer ranged from 52 to 

 55, at which time, I may remark, many of the thrushes which still re- 

 mained inland, were heard recording in distinct and audible key, thus 

 flattering us with the hope that winter had divested herself of her cha- 

 racteristic garb, and that these sweet carols were to be the prelude of 

 an early spring. These halcyon days, however, were of short duration, 

 as, on the 6th of January, frost set in, accompanied in this district by 



