WINTER OF 1784. 295 



Severe frosts seem to be partial, or to run m currents ; for 



the same juncture, as the author was informed by accurate 

 correspondents, at Lyndon, in the county of Eutland, the 

 thermometer stood at 19 ; at Blackburn, in Lancashire, at 

 19 ; and at Manchester at 21, 20, and 18. Thus does some 

 unknown circumstance strangely overbalance latitude, and 

 render the cold sometimes much greater in the southern than 

 the northern parts of this kingdom. 



The consequences of this severity were, that in Hampshire, 

 at the melting of the snow, the wheat looked well, and the 

 turnips came forth little injured. The laiu'els and laurus- 

 tines were somewhat damaged, but only in hot aspects. No 

 evergreens were quite destroyed ; and not half the damage 

 sustained that befell in January, 1768. Those laurels that 

 were a little scorched on the south sides, were perfectly un- 

 touched on their north sides. The care taken to shake the 

 snow, day by day, from the branches, seemed greatly to avail 

 the author's evergreens. A neighbour's laurel hedge, in a 

 high situation, and facing to the north, was perfectly green 

 and vigorous ; and the Portugal laurels remained unhurt. 



As to the birds, the thrushes and blackbirds were mostly 

 destroyed : and the partridges, by the weather and poachers, 

 were so thinned, that few remained to breed the following 

 year. 



LETTER CYII. 



TO THE SAME. 



As the frost in December, 1784, was very extraordinary, 

 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. 



every night the leech -was frozen, and thawed the following; day. It was 

 observed by Capt. Franklin that during the severe winter he experienced 

 near the Coppermine River, the fish froze as they were taken out of the nets. 

 In a short time they became a solid mass of ice, and by a blow or two of the 

 hatchet, they were easily split open. If, however, in the completely frozen 

 State, they were thawed before the fire, they recovered tlieir animation. — Ed. 



