therefore, on
the morning of the 10th, written to Mr. ---, and entreated him to hang
out his thermometer, made by Adams, and to pay some attention to it
morning and evening, expecting wonderful phenomena, in so elevated a
region, at two hundred feet or more above my house. But, behold! on the
10th, at eleven at night, it was down only to 17 degrees, and the next
morning at 22 degrees, when mine was at 10 degrees! We were so disturbed
at this unexpected reverse of comparative local cold, that we sent one of
my glasses up, thinking that of Mr. --- must, somehow, be wrongly
constructed.

But, when the instruments came to be confronted, they went exactly
together; so that, for one night at least, the cold at Newton was 18
degrees less than at Selborne; and, through the whole frost, 10 degrees
or 12 degrees; and, indeed, when we came to observe consequences, we
could readily credit this; for all my laurustines, bays, ilexes,
arbutuses, cypresses, and even my Portugal laurels, and (which occasions
more regret) my fine sloping laurel-hedge, were scorched up; while, at
Newton, the same trees have not lost a leaf.

We had steady frost on the 25th, when the thermometer in the morning was
down to 10 degrees with us, and at Newton only to 21 degrees. Strong
frost continued till the 31st, when some tendency to thaw was observed;
and, by January 3rd, 1785, the thaw was confirmed, and some rain fell.

A circumstance that I must not omit, because it was new to us, is, that
on Friday, December 10th, being bright sunshine, the air was full of icy
_spiculae_, floating in all directions, like atoms in a sunbeam let into
a dark room. We thought them at first particles of the rime falling from
my tall hedges; but were soon convinced to the contrary, by making our
observations in open places where no rime could reach us. Were they
watery particles of the air frozen as they floated, or were they
evaporations from the snow frozen as they mounted?

We were much obliged to the thermometers for the early information they
gave us; and hurried our apples, pears, onions, potatoes, etc., into the
cellar, and warm closets; while those who had not, or neglected such
warnings, lost all their store of roots and fruits, and had their very
bread and cheese frozen.

I must not omit to tell you that, during these two Siberian days, my
parlour cat was so electric, that had a person stroked her, and been
properly insulated, the shock might have been