404 ATMOSPHERIC OBSERVATIONS. 



hurdles for the farm, that probably few persons 

 have ever seen a willow tree. At any rate a sight 

 of one grown unmutilated from the root is a rare 

 occurrence. The few that I have seen constituted 

 trees of great beauty ; but as the willow, from the 

 nature of its wood, can never be valuable as a 

 timber tree, perhaps by topping it we obtain its 

 best services. In the county of Gloucester there 

 are several remarkable trees of different species now 

 growing, but I am not acquainted with any greater 

 natural curiosity of this sort than an uncommonly 

 fine willow tree in the meadows on the right of the 

 Spa-house at Gloucester. There are two of them ; 

 the species I forget, but one tree is so healthy and 

 finely grown, that it deserves every attention, and 

 should be .preserved as an unique specimen, an ex- 

 ample of what magnitude this despised race may 

 attain when suffered to proceed in its own unre- 

 strained vigour. 



Dec. 30. A cold foggy morning, the ground 

 covered with a white frost ; about twelve o'clock 

 the sun burst out with great brilliancy, and life and 

 light succeeded to torpor and gloom ; a steam im- 

 mediately arose from our garden beds and ploughed 

 lands, giving us a very strong example of the rapid 

 manner in which the matter of heat (caloric) will 

 at times unite with water. Half an hour before, 

 this water was frozen and inert ; but the instant 

 that the sun's rays fell upon it, their heat was im- 

 bibed, and the icy matter converted into a body 

 lighter than the atmosphere by which it was sur- 



