VIII] 



BEDFORDSHIRE: TURVEY 



121 



Thus ended the "Weather Almanack," and I am not 

 aware whether the writer ever disclosed the exact method by 

 which he arrived at his predictions. In each of the issues he 

 had a somewhat lengthy introduction, the first of which 

 purported to explain the principles of his system. But it 

 was so exceedingly general and vague that it seemed more 

 intended to conceal 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 accurate 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 con- 

 siderable 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 deter- 

 mining our very excentric 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 



