president's address. 265 



and on the 11th of that month snow began to fall fast and thick, 

 and the whole country, which was dry and hard, was soon deeply 

 covered, and the cold became severe. 



" Lastly came winter, clothed all in frize, 



Chattering his teeth for cold that did him chill ; 



Whil'st on his hoary beard his breath did freeze, 



And the dull drops that from his purpled bill, 



As from a limbeck, did adown distill : 



In his right hand a tipped staffe he held, 



With which his feeble steps he stayed still ; 



For he was faint with cold and weak with eld ; 



That scarce his loosed limbs he hable was to weld." 



Erom the 11th of JS'ovember to the 15th of April, a period of 

 five months, we have had a succession of eleven snowstorms, each 

 covering the district for several inches. The storm on the 12th 

 of April (Good Friday) was accompanied in the early morning 

 with lightning, thunder, and hail. Snow fell again to a small 

 extent on the 18th and 19th of April. Lastly, early on the 

 morning of the 1st of May, a heavy shower of snow fell over this 

 district. These storms, separated by two or three short interven- 

 ing thaws, were severely felt over the whole of England and Scot- 

 land, and indeed over the whole of Europe, even to the shores of 

 the Mediterranean ; several were accompanied or followed by in- 

 tense cold, which rendered all out-door work impossible, and oc- 

 curred at a time when trade in all its branches was in a state oi 

 great depression, wages were falling and strikes of workmen 

 going on. Men out of work, with their wives and families, suffered 

 heavily, but never was charity so abundant and warm, or so 

 freely and judiciously distributed, as during this exceptionally 

 long and severe winter. 



The Registrar General, in No. 9 of his Weekly Eeturus of 

 Births and Deaths in London, etc., on March 1st, 1879, reports 

 that " during the past four winter months of November, Decem- 

 ber, January, and February, the mean temperature at Greenwich 

 was but 35*9°, or 3-9° below the average of one hundred yours. 

 The nearest approach to so low a winter temperature was 3G-5°, 

 in the corresponding four months of 1854-55, wliich included a 

 frost of six weeks' duration." 



