XX 



NEW LETTERS. 



weather became most interesting, it was quite useless. On the 

 10th at eleven at night, tho' the air was perfectly still, Dolland's 

 glass went down to 1 degree below zero ! This strange severity 

 had made my Bro : and me very desirous to know what degree 

 of cold there might be in such an exalted situation as Newton : 

 We had therefore on the morning of the 10th written to Mrs. 

 Yalden, and entreated her to hang-out her Therm 1 made by 

 Adams ; and to pay some attention to it morning, and evening, 

 expecting wonderful doings in so elevated a region. But behold 

 on the 10th, at 1.1 at Night it was down only to 19 ! and the 

 next morning at 22, when mine was at 10 ! We were so dis- 

 turbed at this unexpected reverse of comparative local cold, that 

 we sent one of my glasses up, thinking Mr. Y :'s must, some how 

 be constructed wrong. But when the instruments came to be 

 confronted, they went exactly together. So that for one night 

 at least, the cold at N : was 20 degrees less than at S : and the 

 whole frost thro' ten or twelve. And indeed, when we came to 

 observe consequences, we could readily suppose it. Tor all my 

 laurustines, bays, Ilexis, and what is much worse my fine 

 sloping laurel-hedge, are all scorched-up, and dead ! while at 

 Newton the same trees have not lost a leaf ! We had steady 

 frost on to the 25th when the therm r 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 Jan: 3rd: 1785 the thaw was confirmed, and some rain fell. 

 There was a circumstance that I must not omit, because it was 

 new to my brother and me ; which was that on Friday, Dec r 1 Oth, 

 being bright sun-shine, the air was full of icy spicula?, floating 

 in all directions, like atoms in a sun-beam let into a dark room. 

 We thought at first that they might have been 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 the watry particles of the 

 air frozen as they floated ; or were they the evaporations from the 

 snow frozen as they mounted ? We were much obliged to the 

 Therm" for y e early intimations that they gave us ; and hurryed 

 our apples, pears, onions, potatoes, &c., into the cellar, and warm 

 closets : while those, that had not these warnings, lost all their 



