188 ON THE EFFECTS OF THE SEVERE FROST OF 1878-79. 



the common spruce. At Glamis Castle, in low damp situations, 

 Tiiujas, Abies Alhcrtiana, and Arancarias, have all suffered, while 

 these survived uninjured at higher elevations. The lowest tem- 

 perature there was on 11th December, when the thermometer 

 registered 28° of frost ; on the 14th of tlie same month there 

 were 30°; and on 12th, 17th, and 24th January last, it indicated 

 4°, 5°, and 6° respectively. At Dunrobin, in Sutherlandshire, 

 last year, the lowest register only indicated 13|° of frOvSt, and 

 little injury was sustained. In the winter of 1860-61 also, the 

 comparatively milder climate of the district bordering on Golspie 

 Bay was well illustrated in a similar manner; while at a distance 

 of about 12 miles inland, 12° more cold was experienced last 

 winter, and some injury done to plants of acacia and myrtle, 

 fuschias, and pam])as grass. 



Eeference has ])een made in this ])a])er to the persistent con- 

 tinuance of the frost last winter as one of the salient features of 

 this remarkably severe season. April, also, was a cold and vari- 

 a1de month, with snow and frost; and the weather in May was 

 not much better than that of April. Frost and snow were quite 

 frequent, and bright and sunny days were accompanied by cold 

 winds and sharp frost at night, gTeatly retarding tlie foliation of 

 forest trees, wliich was observed to be fully a fortnight later on 

 trees of every description, than is usually the case in an ordmary 

 year. A proof of the lateness of the spring and intensity of the 

 weather in May, is afforded by the fact that in the beginning of 

 that month a fox, which, according to an old adage, "will not trust 

 the ice after Candlemas," was observed walking across Loch 

 Callater, in Braemar ! 



The records of such a winter and spring as those of 1878-79 

 tend to disprove the theory aih'anced by some, and first suggested 

 by the late Mr M'Nab, of a climatal change liaviug taken place 

 in the winters nT this country. Certainly last winter, when frost 

 and snow prevailed, might well he called a "good old-fashioned" 

 season, — " a seasonable Christmas," and so forth, but those who 

 use such expressions, or quote the memories and accoimts which 

 have been handed down of liitter winters in past years, are apt 

 to overlook the circumstance that such accounts nearly always 

 tend to disprove, not to establish, the theory of change. Those 

 records tell us of the exceeding severity of cold which prevailed 

 at such and such a time, but they also tell us that the cold was 

 altogether exceptional. Sometimes even we find that, while the 

 viaximu7n degree of cold recorded has fallen short of what had been 

 often experienced within the previous twenty or thirty years, it 

 is described as exceeding auglit that even the oldest ])ersons could 

 recollect. Gilbert White mentions the cold in December 1784 as 

 very extraordinary, but, he says, 1° below zero was the lowest tem- 

 perature recorded in the shade. Now, in January 1855, 4° below 



