EFFECTS OF FROST. 
139 
equal if not more extraordinary nature. Thus, a writer who 
kept a journal in 1658, in speaking of the winter of that year, 
alludes to it as the severest ever known in England, and, 
amongst other things, adds, that Crows were taken with their 
feet frozen to their prey. # In Scotland, also, during a severe 
frost, a Heron was found struggling on the ice ; it seems the 
foot on which it had been standing, had been during the 
night completely frozen up ; probably when first it settled on 
the previous evening, the surface was in a fluid state, but a 
severe frost setting in, the foot was soon encrusted with 
ice, and tbe bird fettered to the spot. Again, in one of 
Captain Sir Edward Parry’s Northern Expeditions, the hand 
of a marine was so dreadfully frost-bitten, that it was found 
necessary to amputate some of the fingers; previously to 
which, by way of restoring circulation gradually to tbe parts 
which bad not been frost-bitten, the man’s hand was dipped 
in cold water, when to the great surprise of the medical 
attendants, the water was seen to congeal round the frozen 
joints for a considerable length of time after its immersion. 
In another of his expeditions, it was observed that the Bavens 
which were seen on the wing had a white circle roimd their 
neck like a collar, which was at last discovered to he a regular 
coating of frozen breath, that had thus collected on the 
feathers, as it escaped from the bird’s mouth. But a still 
more curious instance, and very similar to that of the Kites, 
occurred near Windsor. One morning a person was employed 
in a yard adjoining to his house, when his attention was 
attracted by the growling of his cat, who seemed to be in 
violent agitation, though confined to the spot on which she 
stood. On examining the cause of her distress, it appeared 
that she had been making her breakfast on some offal scraps 
of meat, which had been thrown there ; and the place being 
wet, and the thermometer at the time being fifteen degrees 
below freezing, her feet had actually frozen to the ground, 
and a minute or two elapsed before she could extricate herself 
from her unpleasant situation. One other instance we have 
* Evelyn’s Memoirs. 
