140 NATURAL IIISTOHY 



in favour of vegetation. All this time the 

 cold wdis not very intense, for the ther- 

 mometer stood at 29, 28, 25, and there- 

 about ; but on the 21st it descended to 20. 

 The birds now began to be in a very pitia- 

 ble and starving condition. Tamed by the 

 season, sky-larks settled in the streets of 

 tov^ns, because they saw the ground w^as 

 bare; rooks frequented dunghills close to 

 houses; and crovs^s watched horses as they 

 passed, and greedily devoured what dropped 

 from them ; hares now came into men's 

 gardens, and, scraping away the snow, de- 

 voured such plants as they could find. 



On the 22nd the author had occasion to 

 go to London through a sort of Laplajidian- 

 scene, very wild and grotesque indeed. But 

 the metropolis itself exhibited a still more 

 singular appearance than the country ; for, 

 being bedded deep in snow, the pavement 

 of the streets could not be touched by the 

 wheels or the horses' feet, so that the car- 

 riages ran about without the least noise. 

 Such an exemption from din and clatter 



