188 MR SELBY ON THE WINTER OF 1838. 



wliicli open into it. This kind of obstruction can scarcely take place in 

 a very flat country, because the waters have higher banks and fewer 

 streams, and of course few natural weirs, and because the boggy 

 ground through which they flow, affords a natural protection to the 

 springs upon their banks from the roughness of the herbage. This 

 accounts for the rivers Eden and Leet not being subject to such a 

 stoppage. This principle is well known and acted upon by gardeners 

 and farmers — the former putting rough grass or straw over his tender 

 vegetables in winter, and the latter in frosty weather ploughing his 

 roughest pasture, when bare ground is quite impenetrable. This 

 appears to be the most probable explanation of the phenomenon, but 

 at any rate there can be no doubt of frost being the agent ; and the 

 dryness of the channel can only be occasioned by the water running 

 off while the supply from above is withheld. 



On tJiP Effects prodxiced npon Animal and Vegetahle Life^ ly the Winter 

 of 1838. By P. J. Selby, Esq. of Twizel House. 



The severity with which the year was ushered in hy the long con- 

 tinued frost during the months of January, February, and a part of 

 March ; the cold and long retarded spring, succeeded by a chilly and 

 ungenial summer, as well as a late and deficient harvest, place the 

 year 1838 upon our records as one of peculiar, though happily of 

 unwonted character. Under circumstances of such a nature, and 

 which it is more than probable, may not again occur during the limit 

 of the present generation, a few observations upon the effects of so 

 severe a season, as connected with animal as well as vegetable life, 

 more particularly as affecting our own district, may perhaps prove 

 not altogether uninteresting to the members of the Club. It will be 

 in the recollection of those who attended to the weather, that, up to 

 the 5th of January 1838, the season, with the exception of the first 

 week of the previous November, when we experienced a severe but 

 cursory snow storm, had upon the whole been temperate and mild ; 

 this was particularly the case on Christmas, and two or three following 

 days, when the thermometer ranged from 52° to 55°, at which time, I 

 may remark, many of the thrushes which still remained inland, were 

 heard recording in distinct and audible key, thus flattering us with the 

 hope that winter had divested herself of her characteristic garb, and 

 that these sweet carols were to be the prelude of an earty spring. 

 These halcyon days, however, were of short duration, as, on the 6th 

 of January, frost set in, accompanied in this district by showers or falls 

 of snow and hail, which, in consequence of the calm state of the atmos- 

 phere, fell level upon the surface. It thus continued falling at 

 frequent intervals, more or less, for nearly a fortnight, when the snow 



