SNOW 59 



to be left on the highroad, the mails being taken on 

 horseback across the fields. 



The services in the districts of Middleton-in- 

 Teesdale, near Darlington, and Haltwhistle, near 

 Hexham, were carried on with much trouble, as was 

 also the case near Thirsk, Malton, Northallerton, 

 Bedale, and Durham ; but the greatest difficulty of 

 all was in the Pickering and Eosedale Abbey service, 

 as already described. 



'The marked feature of this Arctic winter' [refer- 

 ring, no doubt, to the snow], says a correspondent 

 writing on February 28, ' has not spared Shropshire 

 and North Wales. In Carnarvonshire the roads have 

 been blocked. Our first heavy fall was on Saturday, 

 January 12. The mail-cart fiom Newport to Shifnal 

 was also stopped, and on that Sunday the cart from 

 Congleton (Cheshire) failed to get through a drift on 

 the road to Chelford. The drivers from Carnarvon 

 to Llanberis and Beddgelert both had to leave the 

 mail-carts, and slinging the bags on their horses' 

 backs, make the best of their way on foot, returning 

 with the inward mails in the same fashion. 



' Both last month and this the line between Bala 

 and Blainau Festiniog has been blocked for several 

 days, and the outward mails had to be diverted via 

 Llandudno Junction.' 



A letter from Laxe}', in the Isle of Man, dated 

 February 14, said, ' The trams have all stopped run- 

 ning ; as in some places they pass through, the snow 

 is eighteen feet deep. I was speaking to a man 



