410 PHENOMENAL COLD ON THE BRITISH COASTS. 



When however the Baltic becomes fast closed, and 

 the whole of the adjacent territories deeply covered 

 with a winding sheet of snow, for months together, 

 it follows that the aquatic bird tribes must seek some- 

 where else a more hospitable shore, where the stormy 

 seas at least remain constantly open. This therefore 

 accounts for the winter visits of vast companies of 

 these fowl to the British and other adjacent coasts 

 during hard winters, of which the early part of the 

 year 1895 may be cited as an altogether exceptional 

 example. Vessels leaving the Thames during January 

 and February 1895 did so under quite arctic condi- 

 tions, the whole river being crowded with ice drift, 

 and all shrouds and rigging of shipping covered with 

 frozen rime and icicles. We were at the Antipodes 

 at the time, but there can be no doubt that during 

 this prolonged period of intense cold (for our climatic 

 record), birds of all kinds must have suffered most 

 severely, and have been driven long distances in search 

 of warmer weather. It was therefore not surprising 

 to find ships returning from the southwards during 

 the following spring, plentifully made use of as havens 

 of refuge by large numbers of birds, which had lost 

 their way and which, without such help, would in 

 all probability have perished. 



The winter of 1853 was another exceptionally severe 

 season, and fortunately we are able to give an account 

 left us by an eye witness, who on that occasion saw 

 those wondrous flights of wildfowl of which we have 

 spoken, collected together in the narrow channels 

 between Scandinavia and Denmark, on their way 

 southwards. 



" The quantity of aquatic birds" (says Captain Lloyd)" such 



