268 BEES FROSTS. 



should also, perhaps, be a wall to the east, to defend them 

 from the piercing blasts from that quarter. 



This observation might, without any impropriety, be carried 

 into animal life ; for discerning bee-masters now find that 

 their hives should not, in the winter, be exposed to the hot 

 sun, because such unseasonable warmth awakens the inhabi- 

 tants too early from their slumbers ; and* by putting their 

 juices into motion too soon, subjects them afterwards to 

 inconveniencies when rigorous weather returns. 



The coincidents attending this short but intense frost, were, 

 that the horses fell sick with an epidemic distemper, which 

 injured the winds of many, and killed some ; that colds and 

 coughs were general among the human species ; that it froze 

 under people's beds for several nights ; that meat was so hard 

 frozen that it could not be spitted, and could not be secured 

 but in cellars ;* that several redwings and thrushes were 

 killed by the frost ; and that the large titmouse continued to 

 pull straws lengthwise from the eaves of thatched houses and 

 barns in a most adroit manner, for a purpose that has been 

 explained already, -j* 



On the third of January, Benjamin Martin's thermometer, 

 within doors, in a close parlour where there was no fire, fell 

 in the night to 20, and on the fourth to 18, and on the seventh 

 to 17J, a degree of cold which the owner never since saw in 

 the same situation ; and he regrets much that he was not able 

 at that juncture to attend his instrument abroad. All this time, 

 the wind continued north and north-east ; and yet on the 

 eighth, roost-cocks, which had been silent, began to sound 

 their clarions, and crows to clamour, as prognostic of milder 

 weather ; and, moreover, moles began to heave and work, and 

 a manifest thaw took place. From the latter circumstance, we 

 may conclude, that thaws often originate under ground from 

 warm vapours which arise, else how should subterraneous 

 animals receive such early intimations of their approach ? 

 Moreover, we have often observed that cold seems to descend 

 from above ; J for when a thermometer hangs abroad in a 



* Meat thus frozen will keep any length of time. At St Petersburgh, 

 there is a market of frozen meat. A species of extinct elephant was 

 found in the ice of the North Seas, where it must have remained for many 

 centuries, and when discovered, part of the flesh was yet preserved, and 

 untainted. ED. 



f See Letter LXIII. to Thomas Pennant, Esq* 



I This may be explained, on the principle that the radiation of caloric 

 proceeds more rapidly from the earth's surface, when the sky is clear, and 

 is interrupted by the intervention of a cloud. ED. 



