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extreme severity and its consequent discomfort to man and beast 
and plant. March was a little better, but could not be considered 
a genial spring month. There were frosts on ten days of the 
month, but not very severe; the lowest reading was 26°, and 
towards the end of the month it reached as high as 60°, but only 
for a very short time, and the general character of the month was a 
low thermometer and about two-and-a-quarter inches of rain 
(2°32). But when March was past we had seen the end of the 
frosts; April was a mild month throughout, with a fairly high 
thermometer, and over three inches of rain (3°12) ; May, too, was 
a beautiful month, with a high thermometer all through, reaching 
as high as 82° on the 30th, and with scarcely any rain (0°44) ; 
June, too, was a brilliant month, with the thermometer every day 
above 60°, and with less than half an inch of rain (0°44) spread 
over four days; July also was a bright month with a high 
thermometer all through, but with four inches of very welcome 
rain; August was as fine, with less rain (2°28), and September 
was a very warm month, with 1-46 of rain only, and reaching to 
great heat in the last days of the month and the first days of 
October, which showed remarkable heat at the beginning and 
unusual cold at the end, the thermometer falling to 25° and frost 
continuing for more than a week, commencing from the 26th of 
October and reaching into the first week of November. Since 
that we have had very little frost, except a very slight frost on 
November 18th, but during the month of November there were 
nearly six inches of rain (5°94). 
The notable points of the weather of the year then were three 
months cold, and for the most part very cold weather; three 
months drought; exceptional heat at the end of September, and 
exceptional length of cold in October ; and it is the combination 
of these different points in one year rather than the particular 
nature of each point that is so remarkable. There have been 
many frosts of greater severity and length than the frosts of 
January, February, and March of this year ; there are records of 
