Snow and frost. 23d, Ground white with snow, as far as the horizon, till nine A. M. 24th, Blackbirds. 29th, Geologising in the Bas Boulonnais, found snow two and three feet deep, evidently drifted, in the ditches and hollows on the chalk downs at Haut Buisson, and above Blanc Nez; also on Mont St. Lambert, near Boulogne. I was told it fell three weeks before, when the weather was very inclement. 31st, A very hot day; earthquake at Horsham, Sussex; frogs croaking at night (Boulogne).

April 1st, Heavy rain from S. E. (Hardinghen to Calais.) 2d, Calm and warm till noon; Channel strewed with wreck; thick fog and rain at Dover, three P. M. 5th, Very warm (Parkstone). 11th, Nightingale first heard. 12th, Hail, rain, snow, lightning, thunder. 13th, Hail and lightning; notwithstanding the cold, saw a brimstone butterfly, bees foraging, and a red butterfly (species unknown, seen at a distance). 16th, Thunder-storm. 17th, Frost; lilac in bud; tulips in blossom. 18th, Frost in the morning; gnats in great numbers; cuckoo first heard. 19th, Blackthorn in blossom; 22d, Two swallows seen at the sand hills on the shore. 21st, Mountain ash in leaf. 23d, Laburnum in leaf; turnip in blossom. 24th, Horsechestnut and maple in leaf. 28th and 29th, Hail. 30th, Rain.

May 1st and 2d*, Heavy gale all day, with great rain. 3d, Gale till noon; oaks in leaf. 4th, Very warm; lime and hornbeam in leaf; swallows building. 5th, Warm and bright; beech in full leaf. 6th, Elm in leaf; apple trees in full blossom. 8th, Cold fog from westward. 9th, Warm again; frogs croaking loud. 10th, Laburnum in blossom. 17th, Red mullet in Poole Harbour. 21st, Thick sea fog from the east. †

In addition to these facts, I may mention farther, that the red mullet (native of a warm climate) was seen in the fishmarket at Boulogne sur Mer on the 19th of March, and that the quail was heard at Carrickfergus on the 24th of March, at least six weeks earlier than it is usually heard there. The mackerel has also this year indicated a striking intelligence. It is well known that, in London, mackerel in the market, and snow on the ground, were contemporaneous not many weeks since; but this fish was taken in immense quantities, together with the pilchard, in Mount's Bay, Cornwall, so early as December, 1832; and it will be long ere the extraordinary scene exhibited by the activity of the fishing-boats during the short days of "dark December," will be obli

* Having been confined to my bed from May 1. to May 6. by an attack of influenza, I have not been able to register all the occurrences of those days; but those mentioned are accurate. My illness has afforded me, however, an opportunity of confirming a fact alluded to by G. W., Mr. Murray, Mr. White, and J. D., in p. 199. of this Volume. I have heard cuckoos all night long, at times unceasingly. As in this wild country trees are not much more common than these "rare aves," those who, like me, happen to have a few trees about their houses, know well that the cuckoo does sing by night.

By a register kept by Mr. John Bransby, at Ipswich, it appears that, during the first fifteen weeks of 1833, more rain fell than was ever remembered. In 1832 the quantity which fell between January 4. and April 28. was 2.45 inches; whereas from January 7. to April 27. 1833, 17.8 inches fell.

There were considerable thunder-storms in Suffolk on April 11. 28. and 30., and on the 30th much hail fell.

terated from the memory of the inhabitants, the oldest of whom recollect nothing like it. Whether the mackerel do or do not remain during the winter near our shores, as some assert, this unusual fact is equally observable; for it proves, that there was a something indicated by the temperature of the sea and air, which induced the fish to awake "de bonne heure," from their muddy bed, and rise to the surface. I lay particular stress on marine indications, because they are less likely to be mistaken; and, in agreement with the ideas which arise from the consideration of them, I was told at Boulogne, that the red mullet had appeared no more after the bitter change which took place in the weather about the equinox.

There are other facts to be adduced, still more important. The Continent has witnessed effects of a still more extensive character. The lark was heard in Denmark in March. North Russia has been peculiarly favoured with mild weather, during the generally cold months. For one day only has the thermometer at Petersburgh been lower than 181°. Prussia has seen scarcely a flake of snow; save at Dantzic, where the weather at the equinox was severe. The centre of But in the southern

At

Europe has been nearly free from cold. parts it has been different. Military operations were suspended, in consequence of the cold, in the armies of Egypt and the Porte. The southern parts of Russia, Georgia, and Persia have been visited by unprecedented severity. Teflis and Erivân, where nightingales sing and roses bloom in January, the cold has been as great as in the north of Europe. The continent of India has also indicated recently some extraordinary changes, and the complete failure of the periodical rains has in places destroyed all hope of the crops. These are incontestable facts. Letters also from the Cape of Good Hope, and other tropical latitudes, mention that there has been lately a very perceptible twilight: it was there, to use the powerful words of Coleridge, in his "Rime of the Antient Mariner," that

"At one stride came the dark;"

now, the inhabitants enjoy a transition period, like that so characteristic of higher latitudes. The last six months have also witnessed some remarkable meteoric appearances, one of which, that of November, deserved a particular memorial, seen, as it was, over so wide a space in Europe.

Those who may suppose that I have overrated the importance to be attached to these notices, will not be inclined to bear me out in my conclusions respecting a possible cause

to be assigned to such effects. Nevertheless, I venture to suggest one; and, as your pages are open to criticism, I throw down the orange of conjecture (if, indeed, the golden apple of the Hesperides were neither more nor less) for whoever likes to run after it.

When the cholera morbus broke out in Europe, it was observed that its progress had followed a certain linear direction from S. E. to N. W.; a direction not unknown as the line of meteoric and terrestrial phenomena. During its passage through Germany, it was noticed that its victims were not altogether human; for it is known that at Berlin and other places in Prussia, and in Saxony, even the poultry were suddenly affected, and dropped dead; and the waters of the Baltic were partially heated in an unusual degree, and without any apparent cause. Many medical writers in Germany publish ed the opinion, that the cholera was indebted for its immediate cause to certain emanations from the earth, which poisoned the atmosphere, and induced disease. This does not affect the question of contagion or infection, in the ordinary sense of those terms; because, though the cholera may have been, in some cases, warned off by the potent mandate of a quarantine doctor, or left, in others, to riot amidst the crowded inmates of a ship or a prison, still the facts which were witnessed at Ely, in Cambridgeshire, where persons were attacked only on one side of a particular street, at a time, too, when there had been no communication with the then chiefly infected places (Sunderland and London), and where the patients were persons who had not moved away from their usual occupations, and had not mixed with strangers, prove that the disease travelled neither by coach nor packet.

*It may be argued, that, as the course of the cholera was frequently along that of rivers, the disease was merely the fruit of miasma, to which all countries, especially flat marsby districts, have been from time immemorial periodically subject. Now, this may be true in some individual cases; but still, when the progress of the disease was equally certain in soils which were dry and warm as in moist and cold localities, when neither height nor depth impeded its career, it will not do to say that this disease was a common one, or that it could have arisen in the same way as a fen fever or the malaria. It is true that in many countries, at certain seasons, the public health is attacked at all points, as in the district of Italy called the Pontine Marshes, between Rome and Naples; and so constant has this been, that the old Romans, who well knew the cause, built their strong-holds and villages on the tops of hills, out of the reach of the miasma: but with the cholera they would have had no such success, for it has regarded neither mountain fastness nor rocky defile; even the sea itself has been insufficient to prevent its passage whither it was destined. And as to the objection alluded to in the first paragraph of this note, it may be argued farther, that along certain rivers (as the Rhine, for instance) earthquakes are known to keep a well-observed recurring course; a not

The French, who are clearer-sighted in such cases than their wiser neighbours (who keep up a hue and cry at the rate of a guinea a day), early saw the absurdity of shutting out a visiter which paid neither toll nor customs, and which leaped over the wooden heads of the properly called “ Boards of Health," far into the midst of the land, while the choleracatchers were gaping and staring, in their expectancy of its passport, to be "vu" and "visé," back again; and, therefore, they relaxed the embargo on innocent wheat and coals, and opened their ports to all comers. The fact of certain persons taking it from associating with other certain infected persons proves nothing against this; because, when a disease comes like the cholera, it, of course, attacks such as are predisposed to receive its attack; and the chances are, that in a house, or a ship, or in any other community, the general character of the health of the inmates may afford a number who are all equally predisposed, and who cannot resist the effects of an infectious atmosphere, whether that of the primary cause, viz. the locality, or that of the secondary cause, an infected neighbour. As to the cholera itself, I would not presume so much as to say, whether it may or may not have been prevalent before 1832; but this, I think, I may venture to say, that medical skill could not prevent it: for, if it could, why did not all the wisdom of all the well-paid preventers keep it away? Precautions were proper and indispensable; and lives, no doubt, were saved by regulations for cleanliness, abstemiousness, &c.; and that is exactly what we may suppose, in a moral view of such a case, would be the result. For God sends his pestilence on the wings of the wind, and the angel smites in the darkness those to whom he is sent; and a posture of readiness to await the arrival of the messenger may, perhaps, avert the blow. If this reasoning appear absurd, I will retire to other ground. The present prevailing epidemic will assuredly by some be allowed to arise from atmospheric causes, although Mr. Spence (Vol. V. p. 3.58.) says "No." I suffered from "La Grippe," in

*

unlikely fact in most cases where rivers owe their direction, in part or wholly, to ancient or modern agents of elevation.

*There is nothing which shows the absurdity of some of the late quarantine laws so much as the anomalies in their administration. While, for instance, ships, at Sunderland, from non-infected places, were not permitted to enter the devoted port, vessel after vessel, coach after coach, day by day, during the prevalence of the disorder, were suffered to depart on their destination, freighted, as the cholera guardians tried to persuade the public," mutatis mutandis," with death and desolation to all who might come in contact with them. Oh, the glory of consistency! oh, the value of the adage, " Exceptio probat regulam!"

1830, on the Continent, and I have suffered from "La Grippe," in 1833, in England; and I am sure I could not have taken the complaint from others. The very sudden, and locally general, as well as individually particular, outbreak of this influenza, points to a cause not within human skill to prevent or provide for. Something in the atmosphere there must be which thus strikes down so many, and no two in the same exact way. It is a poison somehow mingled in the breath of life. Horses and other animals are now suffering from the effects of a corresponding epidemic disease; and in Yorkshire hundreds have, in consequence, died.

Now, I would connect the cholera, the influenza, the contrasted indications in the seasons, the occurrence of meteoric phenomena, &c., in one chain, as so many links in the argument up to a supposed cause of such general derangement in the different systems of nature. And, in order to show how far the supposed cause may be one that can produce such different effects, as far as appearance goes, and yet of the same nature as to the identity of atmospheric agency, I will state one or two preliminary facts, serving to point out a connection between occurrences seemingly distinct.

It has been acknowledged that meteoric phenomena, such as electrical appearances, &c., have a certain relation to volcanic agency. In the present imperfect state of science, when the most brilliant discoveries are the result of intuitive guess-work, who shall say that electricity is not connected with the interior of the earth more than with the natural external atmosphere? * After the battle of Algiers there ensued a most frightful thunder-storm, the acknowledged effect of that action; and it is also known that other great combats, since the introduction of gunpowder, have been followed by fearful storms, that have vented their destructive power on the combatants that produced them.+

on

* Dr. Hibbert (On the extinct Volcanoes of the Basin of Nieuwied, p. 252.) has alluded to the notion prevalent in the neighbourhood of Ober and Neidermennig, mentioned also by De Wyck and other writers, that, account of the village of Obermennig having been built upon basaltic lava, it has never been struck by lightning. The fact, also, of the Neidermennig quarries, which are only 100 feet deep, being always filled with ice, proves that "the basaltic lava of this district influences the temperature of the air, as well as its electric states." I have heard similar observations made on other volcanic districts. M. Rozet, in his memoir on the Vosges (Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France, iii. p. 138.), mentions a glacier near Gérardmer, in a small cavern, which, though exposed to the full heat of the sun, was full of ice in July (1832); but, on October 25., after ten days' sharp frost, had not an atom of ice.

Navies have been often dispersed by storms immediately after action as, for instance, after the battle of Trafalgar.