370 The Natural History of Selborne 



Siberia will hardly endure our climate ; because, on the very first 

 advances of spring, they shoot away, and so are cut off by the severe 

 nights of March or April. 



Dr. Fothergill and others have experienced the same inconvenience 

 with respect to the more tender shrubs from North America, which 

 they therefore plant under north walls. There should also, perhaps, 

 be a wall to the east to defend them from the piercing blasts from 

 that quarter. 



This observation might without any impropriety be carried into 

 animal life; for discerning bee-masters now find that their hives 

 should not in the winter be exposed to the hot sun, because such un- 

 seasonable warmth awakens the inhabitants too early from their 

 slumbers; and by putting their juices into motion too soon, subjects 

 them afterwards to inconveniences when rigorous weather returns. 



The coincidents attending this short but intense frost were, that 

 the horses fell sick with an epidemic distemper, which injured the 

 winds of many, and killed some ; that colds and coughs were general 

 among the human species; that it froze under people's beds for 

 several nights ; that meat was so hard frozen that it could not be 

 spitted, and could not be secured but in cellars ; that several redwings 

 and thrushes were killed by the frost ; and that the large titmouse 

 continued to pull straws lengthwise from the eaves of thatched houses 

 and barns in a most adroit manner for a purpose that has been 

 explained already.* 



On the 3rd of January, Benjamin Martin's thermometer * within 

 doors, in a close parlour where there was no fire, fell in the night to 

 20, and on the 4th, to 18, and on the yth, to 17$, a degree of cold 

 which the owner never since saw in the same situation ; and he regrets 

 much that he was not able at that juncture to attend his instrument 

 abroad. All this time the wind continued north and north-east ; and 

 yet on the 8th roost-cocks, which had been silent, began to sound 

 their clarions, and crows to clamour, as prognostic of milder weather ; 

 and, moreover, moles began to heave and work, and a manifest thaw 

 took place. From the latter circumstance we may conclude that 



* See Letter XLI. to Mr. Pennant. 



1 Benjamin Martin was a maker of scientific instruments. ED. 



