NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 131 



for weeks without change. I refer here to the River Carron, in 

 Stirlingshire. Jack Frost resumed his sway again on the 3rd of 

 January, 1879. 



On the 2nd of December I was at Leadhills, in Lanarkshire, 

 having walked from Crawford, and returning to Crawford bv 

 Elvanfoot. On a small pond above Leadhills curling was going 

 on even at this early date ; but the high altitude of Leadhills 

 accounts for the severity here— over 1200 feet. 



On the 24th December my valued correspondent, the Rev. 

 Geo. Gordon, of Birnie, wrote to me : — " We are now passing 

 through a season which, for upwards of two weeks, has as ex- 

 tensively and firmly interfered, by snow, between many of our 

 wild animals and their natural food as I recollect any winter to 

 have done." 



Accounts from various districts of Scotland, amongst others the 

 coast of Banff, and in Lewis, Tyree, and Mull, also from Ireland 

 and the Scilly Isles, show what immense numbers of Woodcock 

 and Snipe were killed towards the end of December, while other 

 localities seemed to be scarcely visited by them at all. Inland 

 localities had at this time been long since deserted. 



The thaw, we have seen, lasted but a short three davs, and was 

 not enough to clear the ponds, or lakes, or stagnant water, of their 

 thick coverings of ice. The frost recommenced operations on the 

 3rd of January, and continued uninterruptedly till the 13th, with 

 considerable severity. Curling and skating had continued almost 

 without interruption. 



9th Jan., 1879. — The ice upon an artificial pond on Sheriffmuir 

 was on this date nearly two feet thick. 



On the 13th a slow thaw, with rain, but no wind, lasted two 

 days, and frost began again on the loth : but the frost was never 

 so intense as in December. 



The Times says — " The essential characteristic of the winter of 

 1878-79 is 'long-continued moderate frost.' By its quiet per- 

 sistence, without spasms of sudden severity, it has attained a 

 minimum of cold which is the lowest in the last 21 years — for 

 November with four exceptions, for December with one, and for 

 January without a rival. . . . During the last 91 years 

 ' only four winters can be found to match its severity.' : 



By the 1 3th of January birds had almost entirely disappeared 

 from Tongue, in Sutherland, and by even an earlier date from 



VOL. IV. K 



