WINTER OF 1784. 297 



occasions more regret, my fine sloping laurel-hedge, were 

 scorched up, while, at Newton, the same trees have not lost 

 a leaf! 



"We had steady frost on the 25th, when the thermometer, 

 in the morning, was down to 10 with us, and at Newton 

 only to 21. Strong frost continued till the 31st, when some 

 tendency to thaw was observed, and by January 3rd, 1785, 

 the thaw was confirmed, and some rain fell.* 



A circumstance that I must not omit, because it was new 

 to us, is, that on Friday, December the 10th, being bright 

 sunshine, the air was full of icy spiculce, floating in all direc- 

 tions, like atoms in a sunbeam, let into a dark room. We 

 thought them, at first, particles of the rime falling from my 

 tall hedges, but were soon convinced to the contrary, by 

 making our observations in open places, where no rime could 

 reach us. Were they watery particles of the air frozen as 

 they floated, or were they evaporations from the snow frozen 

 as they mounted ? 



We were much obliged to the thermometers for the early 

 information they gave us, and hurried our apples, pears, 

 onions, potatoes, &c., into the cellar and warm closets ; while 

 those who had not, or neglected such warnings, lost all their 

 stores of roots and fruits, and had their very bread and cheese 

 frozen. 



I must not omit to tell you, that during those two Siberian 

 days my parlour cat was so electric, that had a person stroked 

 her, and been properly insulated, the shock might have been 

 given to a whole circle of people. 



Portugal laurels remained untouched in the remarkable frost of 1739-40. 

 So that either that accurate observer was much mistaken, or else the frost of 

 December, 1784, was much more severe and destructive than that in the year 

 above-mentioned. 



* If a frost happens, even when the ground is tolerably dry, it has been 

 observed that when a thaw comes, the paths and fields are all in a batter. 

 Country people say that the frost draws moisture, but the reason is that the 

 vapours continually ascending from the earth, are bound in by the frost and 

 not suffered to escape till released by the thaw. No wonder, then, that the 

 surface is all in a float, since the quantity of moisture by evaporation that 

 arises daily from every acre of ground, is astonishing. Dr. Watson, by expe- 

 riment, found it to be 1600 to 1900 gallons in 12 hours, according to the 

 degree of heat in the earth, and the quantity of rain newly fallen. 

 MR. WHITE, from his unpublished HISS. 



