METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS: 
BAROMETER. 
NOVEMBER 22, 1768. <A remarkable fall of the barometer all 
over the kingdom. At Selborne we had no wind, and not much 
rain ; only vast, swagging, rock-like clouds appeared at a distance. 
— WHITE. 
PARTIAL FROST. 
The country people, who are abroad in winter mornings long 
before sunrise, talk much of hard frost in some spots, and none in 
others. The reason of these partial frosts is obvious, for there are 
at such times partial fogs about ; where the fog obtains, little or no 
frost appears ; but where the air is clear, there it freezes hard. So 
the frost takes place either on hill or in dale, wherever the air 
happens to be clearest and freest from vapour.— WHITE. 
THAW. 
Thaws are sometimes surprisingly quick, considering the small 
quantity of rain. Does not the warmth at such times come from 
below? The cold in still, severe seasons seems to come down from 
above; for the coming over of a cloud in severe nights raises the 
thermometer abroad at once full ten degrees. The first notices of 
thaws often seem to appear in vaults, cellars, &c. 
If a frost happens, even when the ground is considerably dry, as 
soon as a thaw takes place, the paths and fields are all in a batter. 
Country people say that the frost draws moisture. But the true 
philosophy is, that the steam and vapours continually ascending 
