158 Short Communications : — Meteorology, 



awakening is most unusual, and deserves to be recorded. — 

 W. B. Clarke. Parkstone, Dorset, Feb. 5. 1833. 



We may venture to add, from the private note of our 

 valued correspondent, the following supplementary remark : — 

 " The mildness of this air is most extraordinary. We have 

 the climate of a southern latitude, sheltered by lofty hills, and 

 on the shore of the sea." — In the night of December 30. 1832, 

 snow fell, to the depth of an inch, in some places more, in 

 Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. On December 31., I passed, 

 on foot, from Bury St. Edmunds to Waterbeach, near Cam- 

 bridge. The snow was commonly less than an inch in depth, 

 but in some places more ; much of it was melted by the close 

 of the same day. The morning had the very aspect of winter. 

 The herbage beside the road was hidden from sight, but 

 countless thousands of the flower and seed stems, surmounted 

 by their heads of seed (of Cynosurus cristatus, Phleum pra- 

 tense minus, &c; and, on Newmarket Heath, Poterium San- 

 guisorba, &c.,) stood erect and lance-like through the snow, 

 and looked pleasing. Blackbirds and thrushes were break- 

 fasting off the haws in the hedges ; chaffinches were picking 

 their " nauseous dole " from horsedung fallen on the road ; 

 partridges were calling to each other in the turnip fields ; the 

 rooks, and many small birds, were hovering about stacks of 

 corn, formed and left in the fields ; the skylarks, in flocks, 

 were picking portions of herbage, &c, here and there left 

 peeping out, or changing their ground, by flitting from point 

 to point, with soft short calls, through the air ; and (and this 

 much pleased me) the snow had fallen off the wheels of a 

 waggon, which had passed before me, and was quite evenly 

 and prettily stratified, in the manner of the coats of an onion, 

 each stratum being well defined, by the yellowness which 

 every layer of snow had, on the side next the ground, 

 derived from the material, or (as the phrase is) " metal," of 

 the road. As, perhaps, more congenial to Mr. Clarke's notices, 

 I may mention that my father, at Waterbeach, had reserved 

 the crop of apples, on one tree, ungathered. The apple is of 

 a good size, hardy, green, and, in nature, crab-like; its name 

 I know not. These apples, in quantity above a bushel, were 

 gathered on January 1. 1833, when they were found unhurt 

 by the very few night frosts that had, in the course of the 

 winter, occurred, and were then, from their nature, very hard 

 and firm. This tree will, veritably, bear two crops in one 

 year. — J. D. 



