120 MY LIFE 



somewhat lengthy introduction, the first of which purported 

 to explain the principles of his system. But it was so exceed- 

 ingly general and vague that it seemed more intended to con- 

 ceal than to explain. It appears to me almost certain that the 

 author must have had access to some old weather records for 

 a long succession of years, and finding that very similar 

 weather occurred at each recurring lunar cycle of nineteen 

 years, he simply predicted day by day what the weather had 

 been nineteen years before. This method has been recently 

 applied by means of a longer cycle, which leads to a more ac- 

 curate correspondence of the positions of the sun and moon, 

 and has been said to produce very striking results. If that 

 was really his method, his successes, though very partial, were 

 yet, I think, sufficient to prove that the larger and more lasting 

 phases of the weather in our latitudes are to a considerable 

 extent dependent on the relative positions of the moon and 

 sun, and that the moon really is, as has been so long and so 

 generally believed, one of the factors in determining our very 

 eccentric weather phenomena. 



Another curious little personal incident connected with this 

 winter's frost may here be noted. One day I was out on the 

 frozen meadows across the river Ouse, assisting in marking 

 out one of our main lines which had to cross the windings of 

 the river, when I saw a pleasant-looking young man coming 

 towards me carrying a double-barrelled gun. When he was 

 a few yards off, two very large birds, looking like wild geese, 

 came flying towards us, and as they passed overhead at a 

 moderate height, he threw up his gun, fired both barrels, and 

 brought them both to the ground. Of course I went up to 

 look at them, and found they were a fine pair of wild swans, 

 the male being about five feet long from beak to end of tail. 

 "That was a good shot," I remarked; to which he replied, 

 " Oh ! you can't miss them, they are as big as a barn door." 

 Afterwards I found that this was young Mr. Higgins, of 

 Turvey Abbey, his father being one of the principal land- 

 owners in the parish ; and in making out the reference books 

 which gave the owners of all the separate farms, etc., we found 



