BY THE REV. K. F. WHEELER, M.A. 



209 



Mr. Thomas Stevenson, the well known engineer, describes 

 the storm of January the 24th as being the greatest which had 

 occurred in Scotland for one hundred and sixty-five years, or 

 since the one commemorated by Defoe, which happened on 

 November the 27th, 1703. Mr. Stevenson says that "from 

 11 in the morning until 6 at night the storm raged with pecu- 

 liar fury. Carriages were upset in the streets, and business was 



to a large extent suspended So deep was the impression 



produced on nervous persons, by the violence of the wind, as it 

 gathered in heavy blasts around each trembling tenement, that 

 many were unable to collect their thoughts, or to give attention 



to the most ordinary household duties The cost of the 



damage in the city of Edinburgh was estimated at not far short 

 of twenty thousand pounds ; while the same storm, which ex- 

 tended far to the North, made great havoc, especially among 

 plantations. On the estate of Cawdor alone, ten thousand five 

 hundred and ninety-three trees, from fifty-eight to sixty-five 

 years old, were torn up. The price of timber in Morayshire fell 

 from thirty to forty per cent., in consequence of so many trees 

 being brought suddenly into the market." 



The warm weather of January in England was not common 

 to the Continent. Throughout France the cold was great. At 

 Lyons nearly half the Rhone was frozen over. At Dijon and 

 other places the temperature fell to 5°. The Seine had not been 

 so completely frozen for twenty years as it was in January, 1868. 

 The weather was very severe in Russia. 



Otterburn. — The month was remarkable for the constant pre- 

 valence of very high winds. Rain fell on twenty-two days. 

 Wind N.E. to the 8th; S.E. to the 11th; S.W. to the 18th; N. 

 to the 23rd ; S.W. to the 31st. Lowest reading of the thermo- 

 meter 20° on the 23rd. 



Wallington. — The weather throughout the month was very 

 changeable, alternating between fresh, frost, snow, and heavy 

 falls of rain : only seven days of really fine Aveather. The ther- 

 mometer fell on the 24th to 18°. There were constant and 



