188 OUTDOOR STUDIES 
in America; but it must be remembered that 
very severe storms occur only at considerable 
intervals, and the Puritans did not always, as 
boys fancy, step out of the upper windows upon 
the snow. In 1717 the ground was covered 
from ten to twenty feet, indeed ; but during 
January, 1861, the snow was six feet on a 
level in many parts of Maine and New Hamp- 
shire, and was probably drifted three times that 
depth in particular spots. The greatest storm 
recorded in England, I believe, is that of 1814, 
in which for forty-eight hours the snow fell 
so furiously that drifts of sixteen, twenty, and 
even twenty-four feet were recorded in various 
places. An inch an hour is thought to be the 
average rate of deposit, though four inches are 
said to have fallen during the severe storm of 
January 3, 1859. When thus intensified, the 
“beautiful meteor of the snow”’ begins to give 
a sensation of something formidable ; and when 
the mercury suddenly falls meanwhile, and the 
wind rises, there are sometimes suggestions 
of such terror in a snowstorm as no summer 
thunders can rival. The brief and singular 
tempest of February 7, 1861, was a thing to 
be forever remembered by those who saw it 
(as I did) over a wide plain. The sky suddenly 
appeared to open and let down whole solid 
snow-banks at once, which were caught and 
