536 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1709* 



drop down out of the air. That the Lusatia letters said many cows were frozen 

 to death in their stalls. And many travellers on the road were frozen to death, 

 or lost their hands, feet, noses, or ears ; and others fainted, and were in great 

 danger of life or limb, when brought too soon near the fire. Of these parti- 

 culars divers instances are given from the newspapers : as of 2 gentlemen, and 

 a smith in England, and above 6o men, and many cattle near Paris ; and the 

 like at Venice, and 80 French soldiers near Namur, all killed on the road with 

 the cold. Our fresh water fish also, in England, were many of them destroyed 

 in ponds that were shallow, and especially if long frozen over ; some for want 

 of air, where the ponds were not kept open ; and some with the cold air at the 

 holes in the ice, where in great numbers they came to get breath. On the 

 Italian coast some of our poor mariners on board our men of war died of the 

 cold ; and several lost part of their fingers and toes : as Dr. Newton writes me. 

 But the greatest sufferers in the animal kingdom were birds and insects ; as 

 redbreasts, larks, &c. But among all the sufferers by the frost, the vegetables 

 were the most universal ; few of the tender sorts escaping, to the great damage 

 of the owners. About us, bays, rosemary, cypresses, myrtles, most of the 

 phillyreas, yea, even junipers, among shrubs ; and artichokes, cauliflowers, and 

 a great many other olitory plants, suffered greatly. In a word, so great 

 were the damages done among the gardens, that I have been informed some of 

 them have lost to the value of 80, iOO, or 5^200. But the most exact account 

 I have met with, is from that accurate botanist of the Oxford physic-garden, 

 Mr. Ja. Bobart, in a letter to Mr. J. Thorpe, F.R.S. in which he observes that 

 the damages of this frost do not come up to those in l683 ; which frost being 

 of longer continuance, cleft the oaks and bodies of the vines, &c. But in the 

 last frost there were intervals of relaxation, besides several considerable snows, 

 which proved a defence to many plants. But the snow melting, and the cold 

 withal continuing, proved of evil consequence to many bulbous and tuberous 

 roots, and abundance of other things. But, says he, the sharp, dry, and 

 cutting winds from the north, and north-east, were most destructive to many 

 of the ornaments of our gardens, which before seemed to be almost naturalised 

 to our climate, as cypress, bays, rosemary, alaterni, phillyreas, arbuti, lauru- 

 stines, &c. as also to most of our frutescent herbs, such as lavenders, abroto- 

 nums, rue, thyme, and divers others of such race, especially such as had their 

 heads above the kind covering of the snow ; and not such exotics only, but 

 some of our own natives, as is visible in most of our furze-fields, and divers 

 hollies, especially of the finer striped race, have felt the smart of such the 

 rigour of the season, by the loss of their leaves, and sometimes their lives. 

 And what has been more observable this year, than in others, is, the sap of 



