280 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



covered twelve or fifteen inches without any drifting. In 

 the evening of the 9th the air began to be so very sharp that 

 we thought it would be curious to attend to the motions 

 of a thermometer; we therefore hung out two, one made 

 by Martin and one by Dollond, which soon began to show 

 us what we were to expect ; for by ten o'clock they fell 

 to 21, and at eleven to 4, when we went to bed. On the 

 10th, in the morning, the quicksilver of Dollond's glass 

 was down to half a degree below zero ; and that of Martin's, 

 which was absurdly graduated only to four degrees above 

 zero, sunk quite into the brass guard of the ball ; so that 

 when the weather became most interesting this was useless. 

 On the 10th, at eleven at night, though the air was 

 perfectly still, Dollond's glass went down to one degree 

 below zero ! This strange severity of the weather made me 

 very desirous to know what degree of cold there might be in 

 such an exalted and near situation as Newton. We had, 

 therefore, on the morning of the 10th, written to 



Mr. , and intreated him to hang out his thermometer, 



made by Adams, and to pay some attention to it morning 

 and evening, expecting wonderful phenomena, in so elevated 

 a region, at two hundred feet or more above my house. 

 But, behold ! on the 10th, at eleven at night, it was down 

 only to 17, and the next morning at 22, when mine was 

 at 10 ! We were so disturbed at this unexpected reverse 

 of comparative local cold, that we sent one of my glasses 



up, thinking that of Mr. mustj somehow, be 



wrongly constructed. But, when the instruments came to 

 be confronted, they went exactly together ; so that, for one 

 night at least, the cold at Newton was 18 less than at 

 Selborne ; and, through the whole frost, 10 or 12 ; and 

 indeed, when we came to observe consequences, we could 

 readily credit this; for all my laurustines, bays, ilexes, 



