542 
XV. 
OEXITHOLOGICAL NOTES FOE 1881. 
By Henry Stevenson, F.L.S., V.P. 
Read 2 yth March, 1883. 
Although the Americans had forecast a “sample of severe 
weather for ns, early in January, we question if the sagest weather- 
prophet would have ventured to predict such a specimen of a 
“good old-fashioned” winter as prevailed between the 12th and 
26th of that month. Time-honoured “indications” counted for 
nothing — such as a green Christmas, and a very general absence of 
berries on the Holly and White-thorn (now generally regarded as 
a sign of ungenial summers, not of sharp winters to follow) and 
Avith the wind veering from S.W. to N.W. the year commenced raw 
and damp rather than frosty. Gradually, however, the change 
Avas creeping on. By the 7th, the first of a series of sharp hoar-frosts 
commenced, Avith the Avind N.E., but though, during the subsequent 
bitter cold, the wind Avas chiefiy in that quarter and N.W., yet on 
some days of intense frost the Aveather-cock stood W., W.N.W., 
and even W.S.W. on the 15th. At nine o’clock on the evening of 
the 11th, a frost of four degrees Avas recorded, and from that time 
until the night of the 2Gth (with the exception of a few hours on the 
22nd and 23rd), the temperature never rose above the freezing-point. 
A slight fall of snoAv early on the 12th was folloAved by eight 
degrees of frost at night, and the following morning Ave had four 
or five inches of snow on the level, and skating had commenced. 
On the night of the 13th Ave had eighteen degrees of frost, and in 
the morning the sun shining on the leafless trees, laden Avith hoar- 
frost, Avas a glorious sight. 
Still the Avave of cold crept on, till it reached its climax early in 
the morning of the 15th, A\^hen in Norwich twenty-one degrees, and 
in Yarmouth tAventy-tAvo degrees, of frost Avere registered ; the ice 
forming Avith extraordinary rapidity by 9 p.m. The skating Avas 
noAv at its best, even the larger Broads being safely “ laid,” and a 
good stretch of sound ice was afforded, two days later, on the 
