6o ON THE TRACK OF THE MAIL-COACH 



yesterday, who has lived here, m Laxey, sixty years, 

 and he never rememhers such an awful blizzard. 



' We had no post from last Monday until Saturday, 

 and then the postman brought the letters in saddle- 

 bags slung over the horse's back. Last night he had 

 to walk, carrying the sacks himself, eight miles from 

 the steamer. I think, if it lasts much longer, you 

 will not have many more letters from me.' 



The great feature of the winter, how^ever, was the 

 duration, rather than the severity, of the frost. One 

 careful observer records that it commenced on 

 December 27, 1894, and ended only on March 6, 1895 

 — a period of sevent}" days. During this period, with 

 two excej)tions, the minimum temperature on the 

 ground was below thirty- two degrees. There were 

 days when the intensity of the cold was very great ; 

 live degrees below zero in Leicestershire, eight degrees 

 in Kent, and even seventeen degrees in the hill 

 country of Aberdeenshire, are examples. 



Happily for the postmen, intense frost — trying 

 though it was — meant dry walking in country roads 

 and along rural lanes and footpaths. For of rain 

 there was naturally next to none. The month of 

 February, 1895, was nearly as dry as the absolutely 

 rainless February of 1891. Not more than an eighth 

 of an inch of rain fell. Even if snow-bills were 

 plentiful, the Post-Oftice was put to no expense for 

 special boating and ferriage in the rural parts. 



