58 ON THE TRACK OF THE MAIL-COACH 



the travelling post-office of the American mail-train 

 for Cork. They had nine hundred and twelve bags 

 in their charge, and were more than a day late m 

 arriving at Queenstown. They left Dublin about 

 daylight on Sunday, and before mid- day they were 

 blocked in the snow, remaining stationary for five 

 hours below Ivilmallock, and for three hours below 

 Charleville. They were twenty -seven hours and 

 ten minutes in the sorting-vans, a blizzard blowing 

 outside and the temperature being below zero 

 within. The Cunard steamer was detained for a 

 whole day. 



In England, there were scarcely fewer opportunities 

 of devotion to duty. On the highroads, thanks to 

 the effoi'ts of the local authorities, ploughs and 

 shovelling gangs were brought to bear ; but in the 

 Pickering, Darlington, and Hexham districts, the 

 quantity of snow which fell offered great obstruc- 

 tion, and caused serious mterference with the postal 

 service. 



About Pickering, the fall of snow was the heaviest 

 known for forty or fifty years, the drifts in some 

 places rising to the height of twelve feet. On January 

 1, 1895, the mail-cart service between Pickering and 

 Piosedale Abbey (ten miles north of Pickering, in the 

 heart of the Cleveland Hills) the road to which is 

 ahnost entirely across open moors, was wholl}' sus- 

 pended. It was onh^ restored the next day after 

 prolonged eftbrts. The mail-cart (which could be got 

 forward b^^ stages of but ten yards at a time) had 



