CHAPTER II. 

 WHAT MA Y BE SEEN UPON THE EARTH. 



Ah, bitter chill it was I 

 The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold ; 

 The hare limped trembling through the frozen grass, 

 And silent was the flock in woolly fold. 



KEATS. 



HE winter of 1867-68 will count among, the 

 severest recorded in meteorological annals. 



As early as the winter solstice the cold began 

 to make itself felt. In a few days the centigrade ther- 

 mometer sank to 1 2 below zero, through the influence 

 of a very keen north-east wind. At Paris, where, on an 

 average, the winter temperature is two degrees higher 

 than in the surrounding country, the Seine was com- 

 pletely frozen for upwards of a fortnight. To meet 

 with a similar phenomenon we must go back as far as 

 1788. In January 1830, when, on the i7th, the tem- 

 perature sank down to 17. 3, the Seine was also frozen, 

 but the ice speedily melted. The extreme cold of 



