316 NATURAL HISTORY 
LETTER LVI. 
Since the weather of a district is undoubtedly 
part of its natural history, I shall make no farther 
apology for the four following letters, which will 
contain many particulars concerning some of the 
great frosts, and a few respecting some very hot 
summers, that have distinguished themselves from 
‘the rest during the course of my observations. 
As the frost in January, 1768, was, for the small 
time it lasted, the most severe that we had then 
known for many years, and was remarkably injuri- 
ous to evergreens, some account of its rigour, and 
reason of its ravages, may be useful, and not unac- 
ceptable to persons that delight in planting and or- 
namenting, and may particularly become a work 
that professes never to lose sight of utility. 
For the last two or three days of the former 
year there were considerable falls of snow, which 
lay deep and uniform on the ground, without any 
drifting, wrapping up the more humble vegetation 
in perfect security. From the first day to the fifth 
of the new year more snow succeeded, but from 
that day the air became entirely clear, and the heat 
of the sun about noon had a considerable influence 
in sheltered situations. 
It was in such an aspect that the snow on the 
author’s evergreens was melted every day and 
frozen intensely every night, so that the laurus- 
tines, bays, laurels, and arbutuses looked in three 
or four days as if they had been burned in the fire, 
while a neighbour’s plantation of the same kind, in 
a high, cold situation, where the snow was never 
melted at all, remained uninjured. 
