92 Mr. H. S. Eaton. 



covered several inches deep with snow, which had fallen 

 plentifully on the 20th and 21st of that month, and more 

 sparingly on the following day. The morning of the 23rd was 

 foggy in the lower part of the town of Croydon, but later on 

 the fog dispersed, and the snow glowed with a rosy tint in the 

 bright sunshine. It was a magnificent day, with a gentle 

 breeze from S.W. A few minutes after 2 p.m., at the highest 

 point of Park-hill-road, the thermometer marked 32°, and at 

 the commencement of the hedge which skirts the foot-path 

 through the field from Park-hill-road to Coombe-lane, 30°. 

 Looking down from here into the dell below, a thin mist partly 

 veiled but did not hide the lower half of the elm trees still clad 

 in their autumnal livery of leaves; their tops were quite clear, 

 as was all the landscape beyond ; the atmosphere was un- 

 usually transparent. On descending into the hollow the 

 sensation was similar to going into a well on a hot day. 

 A thermometer, swung in the air, speedily indicated 16°. The 

 snow creaked and crackled under foot as it only does in severe 

 frost, the little wicket gate jarred harshly against the hard- 

 frozen post, overhead the elm trees perfectly motionless drooped 

 under their heavy burden of snow-clad leaves, and the mist 

 drifting slowly down from Coombe Farm deposited rime on 

 every twig in the hedge and on the iron wires of the fence. A 

 few yards farther on the thermometer marked 25°, and the oak 

 trees were fast shedding their leaves on the unsullied carpet of 

 snow at their feet. In Coombe-lane the temperature was 32°, 

 and avalanches of melting snow intermingled with showers of 

 leaves made the roadway slushy. At the top of the Addington 

 Hills, shortly before 3 o'clock, the temperature was 34°*5, and 

 the air was nearly calm. Returning the same way I found the 

 same results, and that the breadth of the cold current esti- 

 mated by stepping the distance along the pathway did not 

 exceed 200 yards. But a change was at hand ; whrle I 

 lingered, the temperature, which had been 16*^, suddenly rose 

 to 18°, and the mist instantly disappeared. At 4 o'clock the 

 thermometer at the top of Park-hill-road was at 30°. Clouds 

 now spread over the sky from the North, followed later on by 

 a general rise of the temperature. 



Again this last winter, on the Sunday afternoon preceding 

 the great snowstorm of January i8th, the air being brilliantly 

 clear and the ground snow-clad, I recorded the following 

 readings of the thermometer in the course of three-quarters of 

 an hour: — On the shoulder of Croham-hurst (about 330 feet 

 above sea level), 27°, below Croham farm 17°; in the hollow 

 where I had detected the cold current of air in the previous 

 winter, i2°-5 ; and at the top of Park-hill, 25°. On this 

 occasion, too, there was a faint breeze from the S.W., and at 



