ii The Weather. 



more hunting notes of the past season. Emboldened,, 

 we repeat advisedly, because does it not require 

 some pluck to have to place on record such a season as 

 the one v^e have endured in 1885-86 ? Unexampled as 

 one of intermittent frost and snow in its latter part, 

 while its closing November days and early part of 

 December, were equally noticeable for wind, storm, and 

 flood. It needs but to take up to-day's paper (the 15th 

 March), and read the meteorological report, which speaks 

 for itself. It says : *' It is now ten weeks since the 

 thermometer in London has registered fifty degrees — 

 during sixty-nine days there have been only five days 

 that it has reached forty-five degrees, on forty-three days 

 it has not reached forty degrees, on twelve days it has 

 not reached thirty-five degrees, and on one daj' it has 

 remained below freezing point the whole day. At night 

 in a sheltered position, four feet from the ground, it has 

 registered frost on no fewer than forty-nine out of the 

 sixty-nine nights. At Greenwich observatory an 

 instrument placed close to the ground has registered 

 frost on every night except five, and on eleven of these 

 occasions there have been more than ten degrees of 

 frost ! " While this has happened in London and its 

 vicinity, how much more has it been felt in other parts 

 of England, especially in the north, and on the western 

 hills. On March 13th, in Wales the snow completely 

 covered the country, and blocked up hedges and gateways. . 

 The birds were tame and listless. A woodcock rose out 

 of a ditch by the side of my path and fluttered away, poor 

 fellow, like a half-starved robin. The grouse, too, have 

 had a terrible time of it ; hundreds and hundreds have 

 fallen victims to hedge-poppers. I heard of forty brace 



