IN THE LAKE DISTRICT. 317 
safety of the sheep; and we are sorry to say that those fears have been realised 
to an alarming extent. The snow was nearly all washed from the grounds by 
the rains which fell during the succeeding week, and then the shepherds began 
to have some idea of the destruction amongst their flocks, and it was truly fear- 
ful. On Saturday last, one skinner in Kendal received no less than 250 skins 
from the neighbourhood of Shap, and other skinners in this town had an almost 
fabulous number. Cartloads of skins were also forwarded on Saturday to Pen- 
rith, and other towns and villages in the neighbourhood of the hills; and they 
still, nearly daily, keep arriving here from the fells. On Wednesday last, 100 
skins arrived from one farm, and it was some time before the owner could dispose 
of them, as the skinners had so large a number still unpulled that were rotting 
and becoming putrid in their skinneries. The sheep, whose skins are now 
brought in, have not all perished in the snow-storm, but they were so weak and 
emaciated from the long winter, and hunger, and cold, that they reeled about, and 
then tottered, fell, and died by scores together. It is said that one-half of the 
sheep in the parish of Bampton have perished, and that Mr T. Mounsey, in that 
parish, has lost 500, and Mr T. Assort, of Thornthwaite Hall, near Shap, counts 
up his loss to more than 1200 head. Indeed, the loss has been fearful all along 
the Lake Mountains, and the range of hills extending from Coniston Old Man to 
Stainmore. From Coniston, Hawkshead, Ambleside, Troutbeck, Kentmere, 
Longsleddale, Selside, Shap, Bampton, Crosby, Ravensworth, Ravenstonedale, 
Kirby Stephen, Garsdale, Hawes, Wensleydale, and Dent, the loss has been great. 
and the flocks are very weak and sickly, and large numbers are daily dying. 
Never, in the memory of the oldest shepherd on the hills of Westmoreland, can be 
remembered so fearful a mortality amongst the mountain sheep, and great fears 
are entertained that it has not yet reached its highest pitch.” These fears, I 
regret to add, are too likely to be realised; on this 9th of April there has been 
another fall of snow, succeeding a fall of rain of 1:15 inch in the twenty-four 
hours; this morning, not only were the hills covered with snow, but even the 
lower dales. Since April last year, that month included, I find recorded here 
thirteen falls of snow, in some instances mixed with sleet and rain, the whole 
equal to, that is, yielding when thawed, 6:9 inches of water. Now, supposing it 
to have been all snow, as it probably was on the higher fells, the total depth of 
snow there, if accumulated, would be little short of 83 inches.* Itis remarkable 
that from the 23d of October, when snow first fell, up to the present time, some 
of the higher hills have not been free from snow. 
Incidents, catastrophes, such as have been described above, in connection with 
* Of course, according to the quality of the snow, the proportion of water it will yield when 
thawed must vary; in one instance, when the depth of snow was 6°5 inches, the water from it 
measured °54 inch; in another instance, when its depth was 4:5 inches, the water it yielded was 
‘47 inch, The snow was collected in the funnel of the rain-gauge; its depth was tried where it had 
not drifted. 
VOL. XXII. PART II. 4M 
