92 FRUIT RAXCIIING. 



water away fast enough, and the torrent was racing 

 out of its stone-littered bed and threatening havoc on 

 my property. The section foreman and his assistants 

 set to work to break open the culvert and to widen 

 it. Meanwhile some of his men and I sought to 

 divert the escaping water on the upper side of the 

 culvert in another direction, parallel to and alongside 

 the railway track. And lo ! there we were digging 

 and delving all the morning. Our diversion 

 elTectually saved my land from being flooded; but 

 the escaping water, having travelled some fifty yards 

 down the line, began insidiously to eat its way 

 through the soft, sandy embankment, and before we 

 were aware of it, it had made a hole in the railway 

 big enough to drive a waggon through. However, a 

 speedy re-diversion of the current soon stopped all 

 further mischief in that direction. 



The frost was not really severe until after Christ- 

 mas. The general run was 10 deg. to 20 deg. of 

 frost during the night, with a day temperature rang- 

 ing from 20 deg. to over freezing-point. On one 

 night only did the thermometer drop below zero, and 

 then it registered only - 3 deg., while on another 

 occasion it touched zero. These nights were not 

 successive. We did not feel the cold at all unpleasant 

 except on two occasions, when an icy wind blew out 

 of the north. The house is partly heated with hot 

 water, and in addition we possess what is the envy 

 of almost everybody who sees it — a large open fire- 

 place of stone, on which we burn wood and coke 

 together. The hot water is conveyed through the 

 house in iron pipes, and is concentrated in each room 

 into coils of pipes or radiators. Attached to the 



