216 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
[2nd §, No 1i,, Man, 15, 556, 
heat from below. This disposed him to think, and 
argue, that the mud then lost so much heat, by 
radiation, as to freeze the immediately super- 
jacent water. Henry WALTER. 
This word is probably derived from the same 
root as the Aberdeen word stock- storm, ‘snow con- 
tinuing to lie on the ground,” storm being used in 
that district in the restricted sense of snow, 
Jamieson derives it from the Icelandic staka- 
stormur idem. In the Penny Cyclopedia, I be- 
lieve (though I have in vain sought for it under 
the articles ‘* Ice-freezing,” &c.), isa philosophical 
explanation of bottom-freezing, which we, in Nor- 
folk, call a stock-frost. Nevertheless I do not 
believe in its occurrence, being satisfied that the 
appearance, which has deceived the watermen to 
believe in “ stock frosts,” results from eddies in 
the water drawing down pieces of ice, &c., which 
afterwards reappear with weeds or mud sticking 
to them. At least this has been the ease in the 
only two instances in which I have been summoned 
to see it; for I have for some time been in the 
habit of offering small pecuniary rewards for in- 
formation of the occurrence of these and similar 
phenomena believed in by rustiés, as well as cases 
of parhelia, here called “sundogs,” aurore, un- | 
usual refraction, mistletoe growing on ash or oak, 
&e. E. G. R. 
This term corresponds with that of ice-meers in 
the Thames, and grouwnd-gru in Lincolnshire, under 
which latter word there is an article in the Penny 
Cyclop. It is known to the Germans as grund-eis, 
and to French as glace-du-fond. Science has not yet 
advanced so far as to explain the phenomenon, al- 
though Arago has offered a theory of its formation. 
It does not appear to have attracted philosophic 
attention prior to 1730, but has since been noticed 
by many scientific men in England, France, and 
Germany. Whilst on this subject, I will ask for any 
theory to account for the fact of my pond never 
having been known to freeze in the severest and 
longest frosts. It is supplied by a spring ; the sur- 
face is ulways kept nearly at the same height, and 
its depth varies from six feet in the middle to half 
a foot at the edge; the supply water runs slowly 
off at the surface, and the temperature is 45° F. ; 
it contains weeds and fish. No subaqueous ice 
has been discovered in it, which indeed is only 
found at the bottom of running streams. The 
erystals of this ice are aggregated in a different 
way from those of surface ice. I. J. Bucxron. 
Lichfield, 
However apparently irreconcileable with science 
and reason, it is nevertheless true, that ice is 
sometimes formed at the bottom when the upper 
part of water remains unfrozen, This happens 
oceasionally in the river Wensum, which runs 
through the city of Norwich, from which J; B. 
writes. The wheels of water-mills are found 
clogged and impeded by ice at the bottom, while 
the water above is free. I have observed this 
curious fact only in very severe frosts, and then 
only in those parts of rivers which were exposed 
to very cold winds, lasting for several days. The 
water became thoroughly chilled, but it froze only 
below, where the water was still; the surface did 
not freeze, becduse the wind kept it constantly 
ruffled and agitated. During the past winter this 
stock-frost was found very extensively in a reser- 
voir at Kilmarnock, to the great surprise of the 
gude folk of the town. If it be objected that ice, 
from its less specific gravity, ought to rise and 
float, it must be considered that it attaches itself 
to the weeds and stones in the béd of the river, 
and is thus too firmly fixed to rise. But it is 
often hauled up by boatmen in pieces attached to 
grass and weeds from the bottom of the water. 7 
J. W. 
Cossey Gardens, near Norwich, 
TITULAR BISHOP OF ORKNEY, 
(1* §. xii, 857, 5 2°28. i. 76.) 
I have been led to feel an interest in the sub- 
ject of the Titular Bishop of Orkney, as perhaps 
throwing some light on the early history of the 
country, which is involved in dbscurity: 
Orkney would appear to have received Chris= 
tianity from St. Servanus, and St, Columba and 
his disciples, in the fifth and sixth centuries. By 
what race it was inhabited at that time is not very 
certain, likely Pictish ; but with the Christianit 
then introduced is connected the Pape or Iris 
priests nientioned in the deed of diploma of the 
genealogy of the Earls of Orkney by Thomas 
Tulloch, Bishop of Orkney, to the King of 
Norway in 1043, and in the geographical work, 
De Mensira Orbes Terre, of Dicuil, an Irish 
priest of the beginning of the ninth century: 
Towards the end of that century Orkney was in- 
vaded by the Pagan Norwegians under King 
Harold Harfager, and the Christian inhabitants 
of Orkney are said to have been exterminated or 
expelled by the heathen Norsemen. Christianity 
was a second time introduced by Olaf Trygveson, 
King of Norway, in 998, while Sigurd the Gross 
was Earl of Orkney. This Earl Sigurd was 
killed at the battle of Clontarf, near Dublin, in 
1014, aiid is celebrated in a wild Norse song, on 
which, Gray’s Ode of the “Fatal Sisters” is 
founded. 
His youngest son Thorfin was Harl of Orkney 
between 1028 and 1064. Thorfin’s mother was . 
daughter of Maleolin IL, King of Scotland, and 
