HOAB-PROST. 103 



1879. A ttick fog the day before had, in this 

 case, precipitated moisture on every prominent 

 object, on walls, on railings, on branches and 

 twigs, on the tiniest sprays of the ramification 

 of trees and shrubs, on blades of grass, and oi^ 

 the ' gossamer threads ' of spiders. The evening 

 before, though frosty, had not beeU very coldj 

 but the cold must have become greatlj?' intensified 

 towards the. morning, and its first severe period 

 of duration had evidently been determined by the 

 arrival of a keen easterly wind, for everything of 

 which the frost had taken hold, showed the hoai; 

 on its easterly side. The appearance had, there- 

 fore, a more remarkable aspect than that which 

 usually accompanies hoar-frost, because it was 

 more or less one-sided. It depended upon the 

 general position of an object how the moisture 

 had congealed upon it. One Elm tree we noted 

 was a marvellous spectacle. Every twig was 

 lined with a thick incrustation of ice^but in this 

 case the icicles were on the eastern side only. 

 Each one, too, instead of depending from or being 

 superposed on the twig, stood out horizontally 

 from it, and was considerably broader at its base 



