THE EARTH IN METEORIC SHADOW. 147 



gated in very remote spots, as in America or in the 

 Southern Hemisphere,' which since his day has been 

 accomplished, as we shall presently see. 



We have to note also that the peculiarity, besides 

 being observed in widely different places, has been 

 observed at widely different times. Indeed, perhaps 

 the most remarkable circumstance about these cold 

 spells is that not only their occurrence, but the time 

 of their occurrence, should have been noted by the 

 unscientific, not usually ready to compare the weather 

 and seasonal changes of one year (at least, in details) 

 with those of another. Thus the three cold days of 

 April, which before the change of style came early in 

 the month (and were, in fact, for two or three centuries 

 practically coincident with the first three days of the 

 month), have been long known in Scotland and the 

 north of England as the ' borrowing days ' that is, 

 the days in reference to which there had been a bor- 

 rowing, according to an old saying, embodied in the 

 following doggrel lines : 



March borrows from April 

 Three days, and they are ill ; 

 The first of them is wan and weet, 

 The second it is snaw and sleet, 

 The third of them is a peel-a-bane, 

 And freezes the wee bird's neb tae stane. 1 



1 In the Glossary of Scotch Words and Phrases these lines aru 

 given : 



Said March to April, 

 Gie me three hoggs upon yon hill, 

 And in the space of days three 

 I'll find a way to gar them dee. 

 L 2 



