56 NATURAL AND CIVIL 



The frosts commonly cease about the be- 

 g;inning of June, and come on again between 

 the first and the middle of September. When 

 they first come, they appear not on the hills, or 

 highest parts of the trees, but in the low and 

 ■\vet lands, and on the lowest parts ^ of the trees. 

 When a fog lies along the low lands adjoining 

 to a ri^'er, when the winds are high, and when 

 the lands are but partly or newly cleared, the 

 frosts are retarded or prevented ; and do not 

 appear so soon, or so great, as in clear, low, and 

 wet places. These circumstances seem to ex^ 

 plain the reason w^hy the frosts are first seen not 

 on the high, but on the low lands. The dews 

 and vapours are the most dense and abundant, 

 in those places ; much more so than they are at 

 hi.£;"her altitudes, or upon the hills. The first 

 effects of the frost are not sufficient to freeze 

 the leaves of the trees, or other vegetables. 

 The cold at first avails onlv to effect the conoel- 

 ation of the dew and vapour ; as these are chief- 

 ly to be found in the low and moist lands, and 

 not higlier than the lowest limbs of the trees, 

 these are the places where the first effects of the 

 frosts appear. A high wind serves to prevent 

 these effects, by carrying off" the dtw and va- 

 pours ; and a fog detains tiie heat in amazing 

 quantities, and prevents its flowing off from the 

 surface of the cartii, either so rapidly, or in such 

 quantities, as to occasion a frost. 



In those places where the earth is not cover- 

 ed Vv^ith snow, the frost penetrates several feet 

 below the surface. In the winter of 1789 there 

 was but little snow at Rutland ; and the sur- 

 fiice of the earth was frozen almost the whole 



