160 Meteorological Talk. [Feb. 1814. 



REMARKS. 



Twelfth Month. — 14, 15. Hoar frost: clear days. 16, 17. Cloudy: rain at 

 intervals : bees quit the liive in nnnsual numbers for tlie season. 18. "Windy : some 

 rain. 19. Very misty, a.m. 20. Hoar frost, 21. Thesame, followed by wind 

 and rain. 23, 24,25. Misty: drizzling rain at intervals. 26. A clear morning, 

 with much dew: the barometer rising fast: Cirrus and Cirrostratus: orange 

 colouied twilight. 31. Since the 26th we have had a succession of thick fogs, 

 with a calm air, or at most a breeze from the N.E. Yesterday the air cleared a 

 little: and to-day has been fine. A display of Cirrus cloudi-, with much red in 

 the morning and evening sky. The peculiar smell of electricity has been per- 

 ceptible of late, when the air cleared up at sun-set. 



1S14. first Montn. — 4. The mi^ts, which have again prevailed for several days, 

 and which have rendered travelling dangerous, are probably Referable to the 

 modification Stratus. The air has been, in eftect, loaded with particles of 

 freezing water, such as in a higher region would have produced snow. These 

 attached themselves to all objects, crystallizing in the most regular and beautiful 

 manner. A blade of grass was thus converted into a pretty thick stalagmite: 

 some of the shrubs, covered with spreading tufts of crystals, looked as if tliey 

 were in blossom; while others, more firmly incrusted, might have passed for 

 gigantic specimens of white coral. The leaves of evergreens had a transparent 

 varnish of ice, with an elegant white, fringe. Lofty trees, viewed against the blue 

 skv in the sunshine, appeared in striking magnificence: the whole face of nature, 

 in short, was exquisitely dressed out in frost work. When the sun, at length, broke 

 through, and loosened the rime, it fell unmelted, and lay in heaps under the trees ; 

 after which a deep snow, brought by an easterly wind, reduced the whole scenery 

 to the more ordinary appearances of our winter. 5. Snow early, and during the 

 day: the wind increasing in force from the N.E. 6. A dark morning. Snow 

 falling in some quantity to-day, with the temperature at the surface 33° or 4-i°, 

 presented an amusing phenomenon, which was pointed out by my children. 

 Instead of driving loose before the wind, it was collected occasionally into a ball, 

 which rolled on, increasing till its weight stopped it : thousands of these were to 

 be seen lying in the fields, some of them several inches in diameter. 9. A some- 

 what misty morning: the snowy landscape, visible to the distance of about a 

 mile only, exhibited a bluish tint. A thermometer, placed on the snoic, fell this 

 night to 6° : and I am informed that at Croydon a temp, of 5° was observed by a 

 thermometer at the usual elevation from the ground: the time II p. ra. 11. Very 

 red sun-rise: a steady breeze at S.E. till evening. Min. tern, on the snow 11". 

 12. Cu;/j«?i/s and C/rrosi/odii clouds, ilin. lem. on the snow 12°. The river Lea 

 is now firmly frozen, and the Thames so much encumbered with ice that navigation 

 is scarcely practicable. 



RESULTS. 



Prevailing Winds, Southerly in the fore part, and after a calm interval Northerly. 



Barometer: greatest height 3049 inches; 



Least 2908 inches ; 



Mean of the period 29'757 inches. 



Thermometer : Grcate» t height 54° 



Least 8" 



Mean of the period 32-36° 



Evaporation 0-14 inch. 



Rain, (with the products of melted snow and rime) 1'68 inch. 



Tottenham, First Month, 17, IS 14. L. HOWARD 



ERRATA IN THE LAST JOURNAL. 



For t/iivia/ed, read inosculated: tor epnsm, read spasm: for a production, read it 



productive. 



