THE CLIMATE OF ENGLAND.

Southland Times, Issue 1174, 11 June 1869, Page 3

The able scientific contributor to the ' Paily News' remarks that a question of great interest ia suggested by the consideration of the weather which now so commonly prevails during our winter months. It seems impossible to doubt that the climate of England has undergone a change of late years. In looking back over the records of the past quarter of a century one notices a marked prevalence of mild and moist winters. Now and then there has been a bitter spell, but scarcely a singleinstance has been recorded of long-continued frosts, such as used to be experienced of old. If we compare the account in Gilbert White's " Natural History of Selborne" of the winter weather experienced less than a hundred years ago, we are yet more struck by the change which has taken place. "White's account, for example, of the wiater of 1776 describes a state of thinga such as has not been seen in England for many years. The cold weather began on the 7th of January, and on the 14th the narrow roads were filled with snow to the tops of the hedges. From this time the ■now continued to increase and stopped the road waggons and coaches, " which could no longer keep their regular stages, especially on the western roads." On the 22nd White went to London, and he remarked that the metropolis exhibited a still more singular appearance than the country, being completely bedded in snow. The frost in the erening of the 27th, and afterwards for four following nights, waa so intense that the Thames was frozen over both below and above the bridge, and crowds ran about over the ice. The snow remained twenty six days without melting on the houses in the city. Whether we suffer more from the gales which accompany the milder and moister weather of recent winters than from the biting frosts of the " old fashioned" weather may be questioned. The destruction of life and property during a great gale attracts more notice ; but it is probably less terrible in its real effects than the " wave of death" which the registers ot mortality exhibit when a bitter season is passing. To the strong and hearty the frosts and snows of a bitter winter may seem genial and invigorating ; but they bring death with them to the weak, the ailing, and the aged. __^