A phenomenon common enough in Canada, but very rare in
England, occurred this day week on the Chiltern Hills,—an ice- storm,—in other words, a fall of rain which froze as it fell, so as to adhere tightly to any object it touched, in the form of many times its weight of ice. The gentleman who relates his experi- ences in Tuesday's Times says, " I do not believe that a single drop of rain left it [my umbrella] during the three hours I was out, and when I returned home it was one bright sheet of ice."
One twig which this gentleman brought home from a hedge weighed "ten parts ice to one of wood," and this was "by no means exceptional." The gates were covered with icicles, not hanging straight down, but inclined towards the north at an angle of 30° to the bars of the gate, —the angle at which the strong gale blowing had slanted the rain before it froze. Some of the trees were frozen so stiff and deep in ice that they did not bend to the wind at all ; others shook off their icicles with a rattle on to the icy grass, every blade of which was coated with a thick case of the same mail. " The general aspect of the country," says the writer, " was such as to defy my description. It was as if every object had been suddenly dipped in liquid glass ; and not till late at night did the south wind and rain gain the mastery, when the ice fell in heaps under every tree."
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