NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 195 



weather for weeks to come, since every night increased in 

 severity ; but, behold, without any apparent cause, on the 

 ist of February a thaw took place, and some rain followed 

 before night, making good the observation above, that 

 frosts often go off as it were at once, without any gradual 

 declension of cold. On the 2d of February the thaw per- 

 sisted ; and on the 3d swarms of little insects were frisking 

 and sporting in a court-yard at South Lambeth, as if they 

 had felt no frost. Why the juices in the small bodies and 

 smaller limbs of such minute beings are not frozen is a 

 matter of curious inquiry. 



Severe frosts seem to be partial, or to run in currents ; 

 for at the same juncture, as the author was informed by 

 accurate correspondents, at Lyndon, in the county of 

 Rutland, the thermometer stood at 19 ; at Blackburn, in 

 Lancashire, at 19; and at Manchester at 21, 20, and 18. 

 Thus does some unknown circumstance strangely over- 

 balance latitude, and render the cold sometimes much 

 greater in the southern than the northern parts of this 

 kingdom. 



The consequences of this severity were, that in Hamp- 

 shire, at the melting of the snow, the wheat looked well, 

 and the turnips came forth little injured. The laurels and 

 laurustines were somewhat damaged, but only in hot aspects. 

 No evergreens were quite destroyed ; and not half the 

 damage sustained that befell in January, 1768. Those 

 laurels that were a little scorched on the south-sides were 

 perfectly untouched on their north-sides. The care taken 

 to shake the snow day by day from the branches seemed 

 greatly to avail the author's evergreens. A neighbour's 

 laurel-hedge, in a high situation, and facing to the north, 

 was perfectly green and vigorous ; and the Portugal laurels 

 remained unhurt. 



As to the birds, the thrushes and blackbirds were mostly 

 destroyed ; and the partridges, by the weather and poachers, 

 were so thinned that few remained to breed the following 

 year. 



