468 MR MILNE ON THE DRYING UP OF THE 



the middle of the day, and continued some hours. The thermometer at 10 p. m. 

 on the 26th was 28° Fahr., and at 8 a. m. next morning it was 30°. 



The river Tay at Perth was observed, on the 27th November, to have had its 

 waters greatly lowered ; — my informant states, to the amount of from three to four 

 feet in depth. Attention was drawn to the circumstance, in rather a curious way. 

 A new water-engine had been, last autumn, contracted to be erected in Perth, for 

 driving a saw-mill. It so happened, that the 27th November was the day fixed 

 for trying the machinery, before it was taken off the hands of the contractor. 

 The water-wheels were set in motion by the stream about 9 a. m., and they went 

 very well for about an hour, when they suddenly stopped. This excited surprise, 

 as the wheels had been erected and fixed about a month before, when the water 

 in the river was particularly low ; so that, when the wheels stopped, there was 

 an apprehension of some fault in the machinery. But it was soon discovered, 

 to the great satisfaction of the machine-maker, and I may add of his employer, 

 that the cause of the stoppage lay not in the machinery, but in the river, the 

 waters of which had subsided, and left the wheels high and dry. My informant 

 (who is the ovsTier of the saw-mill) states, that this want of water continued 

 tiU 2 o'clock p. M., and that at 3 o'clock there was cm-rent enough to set the 

 wheels again in motion. He adds, that the frost at Perth had been slight during 

 the previous night ; but in the higher grounds, at least, the frost must have been 

 more severe, for, at Kinfauns, the thermometer had sunk through the preceding 

 night to 28°. 



These are the only other rivers in which (so far as I have heard) the same 

 phenomenon was observed, which occurred (though much more strikingly) in the 

 Teviot, Nith, and Clyde, on the 27th of November. 



I should add, that, on the 2Sth January last, another desiccation, but to a 

 more limited extent, happened in the Teviot and in the Ettrick. At Maxwell- 

 heugh Mill, near Kelso, the bed of the Teviot again became dry. On this occa- 

 sion, at least, the phenomenon may be accounted for, by the cuiTent having been 

 entirely obstructed at Ormiston Mill, by a dyke or barrier of ice formed along the 

 lip or edge of the cauld ; for above Ormiston Mill, the phenomenon was not ob- 

 served. On the same day the river Ettrick, near the schoolhouse of Ettrick, was 

 likewise reduced to about one-tenth of its usual size. 



With regard to stoppages in other rivers at former periods, I shall notice 

 them very briefly, and shall do so in chronological order. 



The Kirtle, a river which runs from Dumfriesshire into the Solway Frith, 

 stopped, on the 17th February 1748, for five hours : it stopped again two days 

 after for nine hours, and its channel was dry along seven miles of its course. 



The Sark (a river which flows into the Eden near Carlisle) dried up near 

 Phillipston, in the parish of Kirkandrew, on the 20th February 1748. 



On the same day the Liddell, which joins the Esk near Langholm, dried up 



