146 



NATURAL TIXSTORY 



degrees above zero, sunk quite into the brass 

 guard of the ball ; so that when the weather 

 became most interesting, this was useless. 

 On the 10th, at eleven at night, though the 

 air was perfectly still, Dollond's glass went 

 down to one degree below zero ! This 

 strange severity of the weather made me 

 very desirous to know what degree of cold 

 there might be in such an exalted and near 

 situation as Newton. We had, therefore, 

 on the morning of the 10th, written to 



Mr. , and entreated him to hang out 



his thermometer, made by Adams ; and to 

 pay some attention to it morning and even- 

 ing ; expecting wonderful phaenomena, in 

 so elevated a region, at two hundred feet 

 or more above my house. But, behold ! on 

 the 10th, at eleven at night, it was down 

 only to 17, and the next morning at 22, 

 when mine was at 10 ! We were so dis- 

 turbed at this unexpected reverse of com- 

 parative local cold, that we sent one of my 



glasses up, thinking that of Mr. must, 



some how, be wrongly constructed. But, 

 w^hen the instruments came to be con- 



