3^ 
NATURAL HI ST 0 BY 
As to the birds, the thrushes and blackbirds were mostly 
destroyed ; and the partridges, by the weather and poachers, 
were so thinned that few remained to breed the following 
year. 
LETTER LXIII. 
TO THE HONOUKABLE DAINES BAERINGTON. 
S the frost in December, 1784, was very extra- 
ordinary, you, I trust, will not be displeased 
to hear the particulars ; and especially when 
I promise to say no more about the severities 
of winter after I have finished this letter. 
The first week in December was very wet, with the 
barometer very low. On the 7th, with the barometer at 
28^ — five tenths, came on a vast snow, which continued all 
that day and the next, and most part of the following night ; 
so that by the morning of the 9th the works of men were 
quite overwhelmed, the lanes filled so as to be impassable, 
and the ground covered twelve or fifteen inches without any 
drifting. In the evening of the 9th the air began to be so 
very sharp that we thought it would be curious to attend to 
the motions of a thermometer : we therefore hung out two ; 
one made by Martin and one by Dollond, which soon began 
to show us what we were to expect ; for, by ten o'clock, 
they fell to 2Vj and at eleven to 4°, when we went to bed. 
On the 10th, in the morning, the quicksilver of Dollond's 
glass was down to half a degree below zero ; and that of 
Martin's, which was absurdly graduated only to four 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 
