68 THE EFFECTS OF THE SEVERE FROST OF THE 



seasons ere the effects of tins memorable winter will be com- 

 pletely effaced, even from our hardiest common hard-wooded 

 timber trees, while it is almost certain in some instances, from 

 the injury sustained by them, that at their age and maturity the 

 harm done cannot reasonably be expected to be ever completely 

 overcome, however genial and auspicious may be the succession 

 of seasons that ensue. Like the blight which is caused by the 

 ravages in one season of an insidious insect over a vast tract of 

 pine-forest, and of which there are many melancholy examples 

 on record, chiefly on the continent of Europe, so the destruction 

 in many districts of Scotland among forest trees and other 

 specimen trees and shrubs, caused by the winter of 1879-80 

 has left an indelible stamp to mar for ever what was hitherto a 

 wealth of foliage of luxurious beauty and richness. 



Some general narrative record, compiled from notes kindly 

 supplied by observers in different districts, of the progress of this 

 severe winter may be interesting. 



The winter of 1879-80 may be said to have fairly set in about 

 the middle of October 1879. The previous summer (if such it 

 can be called) and autumn were singularly sunless and unpro- 

 pitious, and were marked generally by an unusual amount of 

 wet, cold weather. On the 15th October 5° of frost were 

 recorded at various stations. Continuously till the 28th of that 

 month several degrees of frost were nightly registered, when the 

 temperature rose above the freezing-point for a few days, falling 

 again, however, on 1st November below 32° F., and varying 

 daily till the 14th November, on which night we find 10° of 

 frost recorded. A thaw then took place, which continued till the 

 22nd November, when 4he real intensity of the winter fairly set 

 in, and proved the coldest season since 1860-61, varying from 

 5° to 10° of frost nightly till December, which was ushered in 

 with very low temperatures, generally prevalent over a wide 

 area, chiefly in the south, east, and south-easterly districts of 

 Scotland. Indeed, the characteristic peculiarity of the winter of 

 1879-80 is that its intense severity seems to have been confined 

 to a belt stretching in a south-easterly direction in a mean line 

 from about the north-western districts of Perthshire to the 

 south-eastern borders of Roxburghshire, and embracino; on either 

 side within its area of destruction from undue severity amongst 

 trees and shrubs, most j^laces within the counties of Perth, 

 Forfar, and Fife on the one side, and Stirling, Kinross, Clack- 

 mannan, Linlithgow, Midlothian, Peebles, Selkirk, Pioxburgh, 

 Haddington, and Berwickshire on the other, and in the three 

 last-named counties there were recorded the lowest readings of 

 the thermometer during the storm. Some of them, indeed, are 

 unparalleled even in the annals of the memorable winter of 

 1860-61. By the kindness of Mr. Buchan, Secretary to the 



