284 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



On chalky and sandy soils, and in the hot villages about 

 London, the thermometer has been often observed to mount 

 as high as 83 or 84 ; but with us, in this hilly and woody 

 district, I have hardly ever seen it exceed 80 ; nor does it 

 often arrive at that pitch. The reason, I conclude, is, that 

 our dense clayey soil, so much shaded by trees, is not so 

 easily heated through as those above-mentioned ; and, 

 besides, our mountains cause currents of air and breezes ; 

 and the vast effluvia from our woodlands temper and 

 moderate our heats. 



LETTER LXV. 



THE summer of the year 1783 was an amazing and porten- 

 tous one, and full of horrible phenomena ; for, besides the 

 alarming meteors and tremendous thunderstorms that 

 affrighted and distressed the different counties of this 

 kingdom, the peculiar haze, or smoky fog, that prevailed 

 for many weeks in this island, and in every part of Europe, 

 and even beyond its limits, was a most extraordinary 

 appearance, unlike anything known within the memory of 

 man. By my journal I find that I had noticed this strange 

 occurrence from June 23rd to July 20th inclusive, during 

 which period the wind varied to every quarter without 

 any alteration in the air. The sun, at noon, looked as 

 blank as a clouded moon, and shed a rust-coloured ferru- 

 ginous light on the ground, and floors of rooms ; but was 

 particularly lurid and blood-coloured at rising and setting. 

 All the time the heat was so intense that butchers' meat 



