324} WINTER OF 1784. 



As to the birds, the thrushes and blackbirds were 

 mostly destroyed ; and the partridges, by the weather 

 and poachers, were so thinned, that few remained 

 to breed the following year. 



LETTER CVII. 



TO THE SAME. 



As the frost in December, 1784, was very extra- 

 ordinary, you, I trust, will not be displeased to hear 

 the particulars ; and especially when I promise to say 

 no more about the severities of winter after I have 

 finished this letter. 



The first week in December was very wet, with the 

 barometer very low. On the seventh, with the baro- 

 meter at 28. 5-10ths, came on a vast snow, which 

 continued all that day and the next, and most part 

 of the following night ; so that, by the morning of 

 the ninth, the works of men were quite overwhelmed, 

 the lanes filled so as to be impassable, and the ground 

 covered twelve or fifteen inches without any drifting. 

 In the evening of the ninth, the air began to be so 

 very sharp, that we thought it would be curious to 

 attend to the motions of a thermometer ; we, there- 

 fore, hung out two, one made by Martin and one by 

 Dolland, which soon began to show us what we were 

 to expect; for, by ten o'clock, they fell to 21, and 

 at eleven to 4, when we went to bed. On the tenth, 

 in the morning, the quicksilver of Dolland' s glass was 

 down to half a degree below zero, and that of Mar- 

 tin's, which was absurdly graduated only to four de- 

 grees above zero, sunk quite into the brass guard of 

 the ball, so that, when the weather became most in- 

 teresting, this was useless. On the tenth, at eleven 



