were mostly destroyed ; and the partridges were so 

 thinned by the weather and poachers, that few re- 

 mained to breed the following year. 



LETTER CVII. 

 To THE Honourable Daines Barrington. 



As the frost in December 1784 was very extraor- 

 dinar}^ you, I trust, will not be displeased to hear 

 the particulars ; and especially when I promise to 

 say no more about the severities of winter after I 

 have finished this letter. 



The first week in December was very wet, with 

 the barometer very low. On the 7th, with the ba- 

 rometer at 28 five-tenths, came on a vast snow, which 

 continued all that day and the next, and most part of 

 the following night ; so that by the morning of the 

 9th the works of men were quite overwhelmed, the 

 lanes filled so as to be impassable, and the ground 

 covered twelve or fifteen inches without any drift- 

 ing. 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 there- 

 fore hung out two, one made by Martin and one by 

 DoUond, 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 loth, in 

 30 187 



