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country, though there might not he similar weather, there were equally 

 extraordinary changes. Last winter was of much the same character as 

 tliat preceding it, and one description would almost do for the two, 

 excepting that there was less snow and a less rainy latter end of winter 

 and spring than usual. To what do these tend ? What eifccts had they 

 upon insect life last year and this ? And what may we expect for the 

 future ■? 



In considering these questions we must first of all compare the 

 winter of 1887-88 with other severe winters in the remote past as well 

 as with more recent ones, first remarking that although approaching an 

 Arctic winter in length, it was not a uniformly cold one ; in deed it was 

 trying chiefly from its rapid transitions and uncomfortahle associations. 

 A few days of frost alternating with days and nights of mild weather 

 was the formula which occurred over and over again, with a fair average 

 of storms, but not with so many consecutive days of rain as usual. The 

 chief frost of the season followed and preceded by snow storms of varying 

 intensity, a period we may call the true winter, did not begin until the 

 end of January, but it continued until a few days before Easter. The 

 only time we can compare it with is the early part of the year 1855, 

 commonly known as the Crimean winter, when a late frost kept the 

 ground frozen from January till the end of March, whilst snow in 

 sheltered situations, black but not comely, lay under the hedges as late 

 as Midsummer. Milder but still late winters have been so much the 

 rule for some years, that they still live in our memories and need not 

 be mentioned. 



Severe winters of old, of which we have but scanty records, are 

 those of 1092, 1281 and 1564; the latter was at its extreme intensity 

 from New Year's Eve to the 3rd January. The first frost fair held ou 

 the river Thames was that of 1608, when it began to freeze violently on 

 the 22nd December, and people crossed on foot between London and the 

 bankside, i.e., the river wall at Lambeth, fi'om the 30th of that month 

 until the 10th January, but the ice was not consolidated, only lying in 

 huge blocks and at the mercy of the tide; afterwards, the cold increasing, 

 the ice became firm, there were booths, &c. set up until the 2nd February, 

 when a sudden thaw commenced, and the same afternoon the ice was quite 

 dissolved and clean gone, spring quickly taking the place of winter. 

 Then there was the famous winter mentioned in Evelyn's Diary, when 

 the river was congealed from the beginning of December, 1683 to the 

 5th of the month of February following. Another frost lasted from the 

 end of November, 1715, to the end of the following February. Others 

 were from the 26th December to the 22nd January, 1740 ; from January 

 10th to January 15th, 1789, and from the 1st to the 5th February, 1814. 

 Upon each of these occasions the Thames was frozen, and fairs or sports 

 were held upon the ice, but the breaking up of the frost seems, with one 

 exception, to have been the breaking up of the winter, and only those of 

 the years 1740 and 1814 commenced after Christmas. 



