HOAB-FBOST. 103 



1879. A thick fog the day before had, in this 

 case, precipitated moisture on every prominent 

 object, on walls, on railings, on branches and 

 twigs, on the tiniest sprays of the ramification 

 of trees and shrubs, on blades of grass, and on 

 the gossamer threads of spiders. The evening 

 before, though frosty, had not been very cold, 

 but the cold must have become greatly intensified 

 towards the morning, and its first severe period 

 of duration had evidently been determined by the 

 arrival of a keen easterly wind, for everything of 

 which the frost had taken hold, showed the hoar 

 on its easterly side. The appearance had, there- 

 fore, a more remarkable aspect than that which 

 usually accompanies hoar-frost, because it was 

 more or less one-sided. It depended upon the 

 general position of an object how the moisture 

 had congealed upon it. One Elm tree we noted 

 was a marvellous spectacle. Every twig was 

 lined with a thick incrustation of ice, but in this 

 case the icicles were on the eastern side only. 

 Each one, too, instead of depending from or being 

 superposed on the twig, stood out horizontally 

 from it, and was considerably broader at its base 



