274 FIRST APPEARANCES OF BIRDS, INSECTS, ETC. 



without rain. The first half of August very hot and fine. 

 Thunder : May 25th, heavy, brief, very vivid lightning ; 

 June 16th, slight ; 29th, heavy ; July 7th, distant ; July 

 10th and 13th, thunder and very heavy rain ; December 6th, 

 lightning. An extraordinary meteor on February 22nd, seen 

 by some in the village. I saw its track, lasting two hours. 

 (J. R.) 



CHARD. A remarkably dry, fine, cold, February. Hard 

 frosts at night, sunny days, and a want and shortness of water 

 in many districts. February 22nd, a remarkably large 

 bright meteor was observed from Chardstock about 7.30 p.m. 

 course N.W. to S.W. Heavy fall of snow, which lay deep, 

 the beginning of March. Hard frosts till the middle of March, 

 15 and 20 of frost. Lovely bright warm weather at Easter for 

 some days. The season is very late this year, the dry 

 weather and hard frosts checking all vegetation. May 1st, 

 snow storms early morning, very cold wind. August 5th 

 One of the coldest, wettest, windiest, and most backward 

 summers I have experienced since living for 37 years on 

 these cold, dry, backward chalk hills, 500ft. above the sea, 

 and on the summit level between the English Channel and 

 the Atlantic Ocean, or the Bristol Channel. The ash trees 

 here at Chardstock were not fully out till the second week in 

 June. Corn harvest a month late. September and October, 

 in fact, all the summer and autumn, have been very wet ; 

 rain every other day or so, retarding hay and corn harvest. 

 Roots have done well and grass extraordinary in bulk after 

 hay harvest. It is a great berry year. Blackberries, nuts, 

 walnuts, hips and haws, elder, and all wild berry-bearing trees 

 are full of fruit. I never knew the country in Dorset and 

 Somerset wetter than this October ; I have been cub-hunting 

 four mornings a week and can judge pretty well after 50 

 seasons' foxhunting ! November, 1909 Remarkably hard 

 frosts and some snow, the middle of November. At Tre- 

 bartha Hall, near Launceston, Cornwall, 13 twice during 

 the beginning of November. Beautiful bright frosty weather 



