OF SELBORNE. 325 
weather and poachers, were so thinned that few 
remained the following year. 
LETTER LIX. 
As the frost in December, 1784, was very extra- 
ordinary, you, I trust, will not be displeased to 
hear the particulars, and especially when I promise 
to say no more about the severities of winter after 
I have finished this letter. 
The first week in December was very wet, with 
the barometer very low, On the 7th, with the 
barometer at 28 five tenths, came on a vast snow, 
which continued all that day and the next, and 
most part of the following night, so that by the 
morning of the 9th the works of men were quite 
overwhelmed, the lanes filled so as to be impassable, 
and the ground covered twelve or fifteen inches 
without any drifting. In the evening of the 9th 
the air began to be so very sharp that we thought 
it would be curious to attend to the motions of a 
thermometer; we therefore hung out two, one 
made by Martin and one by Dollond, which soon 
began to show us what we were to expect, for by 
ten o’clock they fell to 21°, and at eleven to 4°, 
when we went to bed. On the 10th, in the morn. 
ing, the quicksilver of Dollond’s glass was down to 
half a degree below zero, and that of Martin’s, 
which was absurdly graduated only to four degrees 
above zero, sunk quite into the brass guard of the 
ball, so that, when the weather became most inter. 
esting, this was aah On the 10th at eleven 
E 
