THE YEAR 1825. 261 
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were burned up, and our fields parched, presenting deep 
fissures in all parts. The heat was unusually distressing 
all day; and evening brought us little or no relief, as 
every wall radiated throughout the night the heat it 
had imbibed from the torrid sun of the day. Our bed- 
room windows were kept constantly open, all appre- 
hension from damps and night airs, which at other times 
were of the first consideration, being disregarded; a 
cooler temperature, however obtained, was alone re- 
quired ; and we lingered below, unwilling to encounter 
the tossings and restlessness that our heated beds occa- 
sioned. Our wainscots cracked, furniture contracted 
and gaped with seams ; a sandal-wood box, which had 
been in use for upwards of twenty years in dry rooms, 
shrunk and warped out of all form ; a capsule of the 
sandbox tree (hura crepitans), which had remained in 
repose over a shelf above the fire-place for an unknown 
length of time, now first experienced an excess of dry- 
ness, and exploded in every direction ; door frames 
contracted, window sashes bepame fixed and immova- 
ble. These are trifles to relate, but yet they mark the 
very unusual dryness of the atmosphere. 
Monday and Tuesday, July 18th and 19th, will long 
be remembered as the acme of our suffering, the ther- 
mometer standing in the shade of a passage communi- 
cating immediately with the outer air, in an open situa- 
tion, at 82° of Fahrenheit. A few yards nearer the air, 
on which the sun shone, it rose to 93.?, without any in- 
fluence from reflection or other causes. In towns, and 
more confined places, it is said, the heat was much 
greater. The current of air now felt like that near the 
mouth of an oven, heavy and oppressive, and occasion- 
ing more unpleasant sensations than such a temperature 
usually creates ; animals became distressed, the young 
rooks of the season entered our gardens, and approached 
our doors, as in severe frosts, with open bills, panting 
for a cooler element ; horses dropped exhausted on the 
roads ; many of the public conveyances, which usually 
travelled by day, waited till, night, to save the cattle 
from the overpowering influence of the sun. The leaves 
of our apple and filbert trees, in dry situations, withered 
