2i8 METEOROLOGICAL ABSTRACT:. 



tanical Garden, which lies between Edinburgh and the Frith, and is about 150 feet 

 lower than the place where I obferved, a thermometer, which marks its loweft point, 

 according to the conftruftion defcribed in the 3d vohime of thefe IranfaSions, fell 

 as low as 5°. The coW at Glafgow, on this night, was ftill more intenfe. Mr 

 ProfefTor Wilfon, who watched the motions of the thermometer, with his ufual dili- 

 gence and accuracy, found it ftand at ^ero, from 1 1 at night till 3 in the morning, 

 when it began to rife, and about break of day was at 10°. 



The night preceding this was alfo obferved, in fome places, to be remarkabl/ 

 cold. At White Hall, in Berwickfhire, 7 miles W. N. W. of Berwick upon 

 Tweed, and about 38 E. S. E of Edinburgh, Mr Hall obferved the thermometer, 

 in the open air, about 10 that evening, at 6° below %ero. This was the greateft cold 

 that I have heard of being obferved in Scotland ; and is, at the fame time, an exam- 

 ple of the locality of thefe great colds. The weather at this time was clear ; the 

 wind very gentle, between N. N. W. and N. N. E. ; a great deal of fnow had fallen 

 from the 15th to the ioth, and lay at this time more than a yard thick on the 

 ground. 



From about the 22d the intensity of the cold relaxed gradually for feveral days; 

 the thermometer was a degree above freezing on the 24th. From that time the cold 

 increafed ; on the 29th the thermometer was at \(>\° in the evening; in the Botanic 

 Garden at 4°; and at Glafgow, on the afternoon of the 30th, it was between 4° and 

 zero for feveral hours together. This was again followed by a relaxation of the 

 cold, though not fo confiderable as before. On the 5th and 6th of February it was 

 again very cold, the thermometer here was at 19°, at Glafgow it defcended to •z.ero. 



After another remiflion the cold became very fevere on the 13th, both here 

 and at Glafgow. This was fucceeded by a fimilar change, only the remiflion was 

 longer and more confiderable, fo that a good deal of fnow was melted on the 24th 

 and 26th ; but on the 27th and 28th the cold once more became fevere, the ther- 

 mometer ftanding at 19 and 20 degrees. It continued much in this ftate till the 3d 

 of March, when the wind came about to the S. W. ; the thermometer rofe in the 

 evening to 40^ " ; and a very moderate thaw fucceeded, which carried oif the 

 fnow, without any of thofe great inundations which did fo much mifchief in the 

 fouthern part of the Ifland. 



The whole duration of the froft was 52 or 53 days; and the medium tempera- 

 ture, during that time, 29° .6. The alternate intenfions and reniiflions of the cold, 

 all the while were very remarkable; our climate feemed to lofe nothing of its ufual in- 

 conftuncy, and its viciflitudes were only lower down in the fcale of heat. By this means, 

 however, many of the bad confequences of a long and fevere winter were prevented. 

 The inlides of houfes were never fo much cooled, that fpirits or beer, or even water, 

 was frozen in them. The room where my barometer is kept, though without fire, 

 was never colder than 37°, and this only for a few days in the end of January. 

 From the fame caufe,the mills in the country were rarely Hopped ; and, except from 

 the blocking up of the roads by the fnow, almoft no inconvenience was experienced. 



The 



