JANUARY. 3 



or what is worse, the north-east, sweeps the 

 descending snow along, whirling it from the 

 open fields, and driving it against whatever 

 opposes its course. People who are obliged to 

 be passing to and fro muffle up their faces, 

 and bow their heads to the blast. There is no 

 loitering, no street-gossiping, no stopping to 

 make recognition of each other ; they shuffle 

 along the most winterly objects of the scene, 

 bearing on their fronts the tokens of the storm. 

 Against every house, rock, or bank, the snow- 

 drift accumulates. It curls over the tops of 

 walls and hedges in fantastic wildness, forming 

 often the most perfect curves, resembling the 

 scrolls of Ionic capitals, and showing beneath 

 romantic caves and canopies. Hollow lanes, 

 pits, and bogs now become traps for unwary 

 travellers ; the snow filling them up, and level- 

 ling all to one deceitful plain. It is a dismal 

 time for the traversers of wide and open heaths ; 

 and one of toil and danger to the shepherd in 

 mountainous tracts. There the snows fall in 

 amazing quantities in the course of a few hours, 

 and, driven by the powerful winds of those 

 lofty regions, soon fill up the dells and glens 

 to a vast depth, burying the flocks, and houses 

 too, in a brief space. In some winters the 

 sheep of extensive i-anges of country, much cat- 

 tle, and many of the inhabitants have perished 



