316 DR DAVY ON AN UNUSUAL DROUGHT 
The weather which followed this drought was also abnormal. Snow accom- 
panied with frost fell in October ;* and this before many of the trees had acquired 
their autumnal tints. Moreover, the winter months, up indeed to the present 
time, have been remarkable for uncommon vicissitudes of temperature, for fre- 
quent snow-storms—the snow lying much longer than ordinary—and for severe 
gales, some of these almost hurricanes, accompanied with sudden and great fluc- 
tuations of the barometer. 
Lesketu How, AmBirsipn, March 22, 1860. 
Postscript. 
The loss of stock amongst the farmers in the Lake District, the consequence 
of the drought and the inclement winter which followed it up to the pre- 
sent time has been great, and it has continued increasing. In the Ken- 
dal Mercury of the 7th April there is an account of it, so descriptive, and, as 
I believe, truthful, that Iam induced to transcribe it. It is headed, “ Dreadful 
mortality amongst the mountain sheep in Westmoreland.” “In our last week’s 
impression” (it proceeds), “ we noticed the snow-storm that fell on the hills and 
valleys in Westmoreland, on Saturday morning the 25th ult., and that a vast 
number of sheep, not only on the hills, but on the low grounds, were buried 
beneath the snow, and that in consequence of a large quantity of rain falling 
along and at intervals during the storm, the worst fears were entertained for the 
* Mr Samuet MarsHatt, in his summary of Meteorological observations for this month, remarks, 
‘On the morning of the 21st October we had the first frost this season, and on the following one 
the first snow, and the next a heavier fall still. The thermometer has not been below the freezing 
point since the 9th May till the 21st October, or more than five months.” A very unusual degree 
of cold, about the same time, was observed elsewhere. Mr Lowe in a note of the 23d of October, 
from Highfield House Observatory, headed ‘‘ Great Cold,” published in the Evening Mail, says, “ It is 
scarcely three weeks since I had to announce a degree of heat greater than had been known to have 
occurred in October (viz., 77°'5), and now the same has to be said with regard to the intense cold of 
the past two nights. Yesterday the minimum temperature was 237-5, and this morning it fell to 
22°-4; previously 24°°6 was the greatest cold that had been registered here.” It was curious to 
observe the aspect of plants at this time;—the foliage of many trees, such as the sycamore and the 
ash, their leaves still green, were shrivelled and curled by the frost, so that their under surface was 
conspicuous, whilst the roses, the China variety still in flower, were weighed down by snow. The 
effect of the severity of the winter as to cold was not less strongly marked on vegetation than the 
summer drought; some of the hardier plants were killed, for instance the Russian violet, which 
during the preceding winter had flowered uninterruptedly; and yet, even the shallower lakes, such 
as Rydal Mere, were frozen over, so as to allow of skating, only for two or three days, and this only 
once, so rapid were the changes of temperature from a low degree, as 12° to 15° and 20° to 
34°—40°; it was rarely higher. And, as the mildness of last winter was shown by a forward vegeta- 
tion, so the severity of the last and the protracted low temperature have been indicated by the oppo- 
site this year; now, on the 21st of March, the flower-buds of the Ribes sanguinewm have only just 
begun to unfold, and not a leaf-bud of the sweetbrier has yet opened. 

