306 NATURAL HISTORY 



As to the birds, the thrushes and blackbirds were mostly 

 destroyed ; and the partridges, by the weather and poachers, 

 were so thinned that few remained to breed the following 

 year. 



LETTER LXIII. 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON. 



S the frost in December, 1784, was very extra- 

 ordinary, 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 barometer 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 

 drifting. 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 therefore hung out two ; 

 one made by Martin and one by Dollond, 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 10th, in the morning, the quicksilver of Dollond' s 

 glass was down to half a degree below zero ; and that of 

 Martin's, which was absurdly graduated only to four degrees 

 above zero, sunk quite into the brass guard of the ball; so 

 that when the weather became most interesting, this was 

 useless. On the 10th, at eleven at night, though the air 

 was perfectly still, Dollond' s glass went down to one degree 

 below zero ! This strange severity of the weather made 

 me very desirous to know what degree of cold there might 

 be in such an exalted and near situation as Newton. We 



