393 



METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 



BAROMETER. November 22, 1768. A remark- 

 able fall of the barometer all over the kingdom. At 

 Selborne, we had no wind, and not much rain ; only 

 vast, swagging, rock-like clouds, appeared at a dis- 

 tance. WHITE. 



PARTIAL FROST. The country people, who are 

 abroad in winter mornings long before sun-rise, 

 talk much of hard frost in some spots, and none in 

 others. The reason of these partial frosts is obvious, 

 for there are at gtrctTtimes partial fogs about : where 

 the fog obtains, little or no frost appears ; but where 

 the air is clear, there it freezes hard. So the frost 

 takes place either on hill or in dale, wherever the air 

 happens to be clearest and freest from vapour. 



WHITE. 



THAW. Thaws are sometimes surprisingly quick, 

 considering the small quantity of rain. Does not the 

 warmth at such times come from below ? The cold 

 in still, severe seasons, seem to come down from 

 above : for the coming over of a cloud in severe 

 nights raises the thermometer abroad at once full ten 

 degrees. The first notices of thaws often seem to 

 appear in vaults, cellars, &c. 



If a frost happens, even when the ground is con- 



