CHAPTEK XVII. 



Signs of a severe Winter— The Little Auk or Auklet— The Gadwall— Falcons being trained 

 by the Prussians to intercept the Paris Carrier Pigeons— Ballooning— The King of 

 Prussia's Piety— John Forster— Solar Eclipse of 22d December 1870— The Government 

 and the Eclipse— Large Solar Spots- Visible to the naked eye— Rev. Dr. Cumming— 

 November Meteors. 



It must have been in view of some such scene [November 1870] as 



the early morning presents to the eye at present that Horace began 



his celebrated ode to Augustus^ 



' ' Jam satis terns nivis, atque dirse 

 Grandinis misit Pater " — 



Enough, enough of snow and direful hail ! Or if you prefer the 



wintry scene in the ninth Ode — 



" Vides, ut alta stet nive candidum 

 Soracte, nee jatn sustineant onus 

 Sylvffi laborantes : gelflque 

 Flumina constiterint acuto ? " 



Which our countryman Theodore Martin thus renders— 



"Look out, my Thaliarchus, round ! 

 Soracte' s crest is white with snow, 

 The drooping branches sweep the ground, 

 And, fast in icy fetters bound. 

 The streams have ceased to flow. " 



The snow-clad Soracte itself could not wear a colder or wintrier 

 aspect than does our own Ben Nevis at this moment. We have, in 

 truth, had a great deal of sleet and snow and rattling haU showers 

 of late, with bitterly cold winds and frost enough to induce one to 

 don his warmest habiliments when ventui'ing abroad, and thoroughly 



