196 Meteorological Retrospect 



all descriptions, was very great in the northern provinces of Swe- 

 den, particularly Helsingland and the environs of Gefle, and in 

 Franconia and VVirtemberg. At the beginning of October there 

 fell a great ()uantity of snow in Scotland, principally in the 

 counties of Ross and Aberdeen, where it lay two feet deep. On 

 the 4th of the same month there was snow on the fertile plains 

 of Bayreuth to the depth of three inches ; on the 9th it covered 

 the mountains of Urach, Vosges, and Brisgau ; on the 12lh the 

 elevated plain of Woivre, in the department of ths Meuse ; and 

 on the 16th, the mountains of Lozere and the environs of 

 Mende. It was concluded from these premature appearances, 

 that we should have a rigorous winter; and in support of the pre- 

 dictions to this purpose, as infallible as those of Mathieu-Laens- 

 herg, we had the old theory of nineteen years, and even that of 

 an hundred-and-o!ie years brought forward. In the first cate- 

 gory the winter of IS 17 corresponded to that so long and se- 

 vere of 1793; in the second to those of 1716, of 1615, and of 

 1514. But the temperature changed anew in the first days of 

 November, and continued so till December. On the 2d, 3d, and 

 4th of November we had at Paris thick mists, which gave place 

 to a succesion of very fine days, so much so that on the 22d the 

 country of Niort and the borders of the two Sevres presented 

 all the verdure of spring time* 



Terrestrial PhcBnomena. 



On the 27th of June, at two o'clock P.M., some women of the 

 commune of Vauvert (Gard) having washed a number of pieces 

 of cotton muslin, and others of linen, spread them on a meadow 

 newly cut to dry. Shortly after there was a great deal of very 

 vivid lightning, which played particularly about the meadow 

 where the clothes were lying ; and on examining them it was 

 found that all the pieces of cotton had become tinged with a yel- 

 low colour similar to that of nankeen, while those of linen had 

 lost none of their whiteness. The yellow tinged stuffs were 

 washed repeatedly with soap, but to no purpose ; it was found 

 impossible to take the colour out of them, or even to free them 

 from the sulphurous odour which they had acquired. 



About the same period numerous swarms of those beautiful 

 insects which are vulgarly named Demoiselles ox Lihellules aqua- 

 tiques (but of a sort apparently new and very large) were ob • 

 served in several parts of East Holland, particularly in the en- 

 virons of the town of Sneeck, subsequently at Hamburgh, and 

 lastly at Stockholm, and several other parts of the north of 

 Sweden, where they disappeared. They came from the south- 

 Avcst. They formed so dense a body that they resembled the 

 thick clouds which precede a fall of snow. When they wanted 



nourishment. 



