364 



AUTUMN AND WINTER 



February 2nd, Candlemas Day, is one of the most important in 

 the calendar. The popular verse for this date runs thus : 



' If Candlemas Day be fair and bright 

 Winter will have another flight. 

 But if Candlemas Day be cloud and rain, 

 Then winter will not come again.' 



But the day has a score of maxims attached to it in weather lore. 

 The point of most of them is that if Candlemas be mild we shall 

 suffer for it later on. Rod-fishing begins on some rivers. The 

 close season for birds begins. 



February 7th to loth is put down as one of the regular cold 

 periods, of which there are five others in the year, and it is astonish- 

 ing how true most of them are to date. 



February i^th. St. Valentine's Day. 



Average temperature, . * 39'5- 

 Average rainfall, . . . ' . 1*42 inches. 

 On February ist, sunrises 7.43 a.m. and sets 4.45 p.m. 





