The Natural History of Selborne, Letters LXI–LXIII to Daines Barrington

Since the weather of a district is undoubtedly part of its natural history, I shall make no further apology for the four following letters, which will contain many particulars concerning some of the great frosts and a few respecting some very hot summers, that have distinguished themselves from the rest during the course of my observations.

既然一个地区的天气无疑是它的自然史的一部分，对于下面这四封信，我就不再多作辩解了。信里将包含许多细节，涉及几次大霜冻，也有少数涉及几个非常炎热的夏天，它们在我观察的过程中都显得与众不同。

It was in such an aspect that the snow on the author’s evergreens was melted every day, and frozen intensely every night; so that the laurustines, bays, laurels, and arbutuses looked, in three or four days, as if they had been burnt in the fire; while a neighbour’s plantation of the same kind, in a high cold situation, where the snow was never melted at all, remained uninjured.

正是在这样朝向的地方，作者常绿植物上的雪每天都融化，每夜又冻得很厉害；结果，那些地中海荚蒾、月桂、桂樱和草莓树，三四天里就看上去像在火里烧过一样；而邻居种在高寒处的同类植物，那里的雪始终没有融化，却安然无恙。

From hence I would infer that it is the repeated melting and freezing of the snow that is so fatal to vegetation, rather than the severity of the cold. Therefore it highly behoves every planter, who wishes to escape the cruel mortification of losing in a few days the labour and hopes of years, to bestir himself on such emergencies; and, if his plantations are small, to avail himself of mats, cloths, pease-haum, straw, reeds, or any such covering, for a short time; or, if his shrubberies are extensive, to see that his people go about with prongs and forks, and carefully dislodge the snow from the boughs, since the naked foliage will shift much better for itself, than where the snow is partly melted and frozen again.

由此我推断，对植物如此致命的，与其说是寒冷的严酷，不如说是雪的反复融化和冻结。因此，每一个种植者，如果他希望避免在几天之内失去多年的劳动和希望这种残酷的屈辱，在这样的紧急关头就非常应该行动起来；如果他的种植园小，就利用草席、布、豌豆秸、稻草、芦苇或者任何这一类的覆盖物，盖上一段短时间；如果他的灌木林面积大，就要让他的人拿着叉子去转一转，小心地把雪从枝条上抖落下来，因为光秃的叶子自己会应付得好得多，比雪化了一半又冻上的情形要好。

Dr. Fothergill and others have experienced the same inconvenience with respect to the more tender shrubs from North America; which they therefore plant under north walls. There should also perhaps be a wall to the east to defend them from the piercing blasts from that quarter.

福瑟吉尔博士和其他人在来自北美的较娇嫩的灌木方面，也遇到了同样的麻烦；所以他们把这些灌木种在北墙下。也许还应该有一道朝东的墙，保护它们免受从那个方向吹来的刺骨寒风。

The coincidents attending this short but intense frost were, that the horses fell sick with an epidemic distemper, which injured the winds of many, and killed some; that colds and coughs were general among the human species; that it froze under people’s beds for several nights; that meat was so hard frozen that it could not be spitted, and could not be secured but in cellars; that several redwings and thrushes were killed by the frost; and that the large titmouse continued to pull straws lengthwise from the eaves of thatched houses and barns in a most adroit manner, for a purpose that has been explained already.

伴随这场短暂而剧烈的霜冻的巧合是：马得了一种流行病，许多马的呼吸受了损伤，有些马死了；人类当中普遍伤风咳嗽；接连几夜，人们床底下都结了冰；肉冻得太硬，穿不上烤叉，只有放在地窖里才能保存；有几只红翼鸫和画眉被冻死了；大山雀继续以极其灵巧的方式，从草顶房屋和谷仓的檐下顺着长度把草秆抽出来，目的前面已经解释过了。

On the 3d of January, Benjamin Martin’s thermometer within doors, in a close parlour where there was no fire, fell in the night to 20, and on the 4th to 18, and on the 7th to 17½, a degree of cold which the owner never since saw in the same situation; and he regrets much that he was not able at that juncture to attend his instrument abroad. All this time the wind continued north and north-east; and yet on the 8th roost-cocks, which had been silent, began to sound their clarions, and crows to clamour, as prognostic of milder weather; and, moreover, moles began to heave and work, and a manifest thaw took place. From the latter circumstance we may conclude that thaws often originate under ground from warm vapours which arise; else how should subterraneous animals receive such early intimations of their approach? Moreover, we have often observed that cold seems to descend from above; for, when a thermometer hangs abroad in a frosty night, the intervention of a cloud shall immediately raise the mercury ten degrees; and a clear sky shall again compel it to descend to its former gauge.

1 月 3 日，本杰明·马丁的温度计放在室内，在一间没有生火的密闭客厅里，夜里降到 20 度，4 日降到 18 度，7 日降到 17 度半，这样的寒冷，主人后来在同样的位置上再也没有见过；他很遗憾，在那个关头没能到户外去照看他的仪器。这期间，风一直是北风和东北风；然而到了 8 日，一直沉默的公鸡开始吹响它们的号角，乌鸦开始聒噪，预示天气将要转暖；此外，鼹鼠开始拱土活动，明显的解冻开始了。从后面这种情形我们可以断定，解冻往往起源于地下，由于有暖的水汽上升；否则地下的动物怎么能这样早就得到它们到来的消息呢？此外，我们常常观察到，寒冷似乎是从上面降下来的；因为在有霜的夜里，温度计挂在户外，一片云飘过来，就会立刻使水银上升十度；而晴朗的天空又会迫使它降回原来的刻度。

By the 14th of January the snow was entirely gone; the turnips emerged not damaged at all, save in sunny places; the wheat looked delicately, and the garden plants were well preserved; for snow is the most kindly mantle that infant vegetation can be wrapped in; were it not for that friendly meteor no vegetable life could exist at all in northerly regions. Yet in Sweden the earth in April is not divested of snow for more than a fortnight before the face of the country is covered with flowers.

到 1 月 14 日，雪完全化了；芜菁露了出来，除了向阳的地方，一点也没有受损；小麦长得很娇嫩，园里的植物保护得很好；因为雪是幼小的植物所能裹上的最温和的斗篷；要不是有这种友好的大气现象，在北方地区根本就不可能有植物的生命存在。然而在瑞典，四月里大地脱去积雪不到两个星期，整个乡野就覆满了鲜花。

The most certain way to be exact will be to copy the passages from my journal, which were taken from time to time as things occurred. But it may be proper previously to remark that the first week in January was uncommonly wet, and drowned with vast rains from every quarter: from whence may be inferred, as there is great reason to believe is the case, that intense frosts seldom take place till the earth is perfectly glutted and chilled with water; and hence dry autumns are seldom followed by rigorous winters.

要做到准确，最可靠的办法就是从我的日记里抄下那些段落，那是随着事情发生，一次一次记下来的。但是事先也许应该说明，一月的第一个星期异常潮湿，四面八方的大雨把一切都浸透了：由此可以推断（有很大的理由相信情况正是这样），剧烈的霜冻很少在大地被水完全浸透、冷透之前发生；因此，干燥的秋天之后，很少跟着严酷的冬天。

From the 14th the snow continued to increase, and began to stop the road waggons and coaches, which could no longer keep on their regular stages; and especially on the western roads, where the fall appears to have been deeper than in the south. The company at Bath, that wanted to attend the Queen’s birth-day, were strangely incommoded: many carriages of persons, who got, in their way to town from Bath, as far as Marlborough, after strange embarrassments, here met with a ne plus ultra. The ladies fretted, and offered large rewards to labourers, if they would shovel them a track to London; but the relentless heaps of snow were too bulky to be removed; and so the 18th passed over, leaving the company in very uncomfortable circumstances at the Castle and other inns.

从 14 日起，雪继续增多，开始阻断了路上的货车和驿车，它们再也不能按照规定的站程行驶了；尤其是在往西去的路上，那里的雪看来比南边下得更深。巴斯那些想去参加王后生日庆典的人，被弄得狼狈不堪：许多人的马车，从巴斯往伦敦去，经过种种奇怪的困窘，到了马尔伯勒，就在那里碰上了“此路不通”。贵妇人们急得心烦意乱，向工人们许以重赏，只要他们能给她们铲出一条去伦敦的路来；但是那些无情的雪堆太庞大了，铲不走；于是 18 日就这样过去了，那些人只好留在城堡客店和别的客店里，处境非常不舒服。

… ipsa silentia terrent.

……连寂静本身都令人恐惧。

On the 27th much snow fell all day, and in the evening the frost became very intense. At South Lambeth, for the four following nights, the thermometer fell to 11, 7, 6, 6; and at Selborne to 7, 6, 10; and on the 31st of January, just before sunrise, with rime on the trees and on the tube of the glass, the quicksilver sunk exactly to zero, being 32 degrees below the freezing point; but by eleven in the morning, though in the shade, it sprung up to 16½ — a most unusual degree of cold this for the south of England! During these four nights the cold was so penetrating that it occasioned ice in warm chambers and under beds; and in the day the wind was so keen that persons of robust constitutions could scarcely endure to face it. The Thames was at once so frozen over both above and below bridge that crowds ran about on the ice. The streets were now strangely encumbered with snow, which crumbled and trod dusty; and, turning grey, resembled bay-salt; what had fallen on the roofs was so perfectly dry that, from first to last, it lay twenty-six days on the houses in the city; a longer time than had been remembered by the oldest housekeepers living. According to all appearances we might now have expected the continuance of this rigorous weather for weeks to come, since every night increased in severity; but behold, without any apparent cause, on the 1st of February a thaw took place, and some rain followed before night; making good the observation above, that frosts often go off as it were at once, without any gradual declension of cold. On the 2d of February the thaw persisted; and on the 3d swarms of little insects were frisking and sporting in a court-yard at South Lambeth, as if they had felt no frost. Why the juices in the small bodies and smaller limbs of such minute beings are not frozen is a matter of curious inquiry.

27 日整天下了很多雪，到傍晚霜冻变得非常剧烈。在南兰贝斯，接下来的四个夜晚，温度计降到了 11 度、7 度、6 度、6 度；在塞尔伯恩降到 7 度、6 度、10 度；1 月 31 日，就在日出之前，树上和温度计的玻璃管上都结着白霜，水银恰好降到零度，即冰点以下 32 度；但是到上午十一点，虽然是在背阴处，它就跳到了 16 度半——对英格兰南部来说，这真是极不寻常的寒冷！在这四个夜晚里，寒气如此刺骨，以致温暖的卧室里和床底下都结了冰；白天风那么凛冽，体格健壮的人也几乎受不了迎着它走。泰晤士河在桥的上游和下游一下子都冻住了，成群的人在冰上跑来跑去。街道上这时被雪堵塞得很奇怪，雪踩上去就碎成粉末，变成灰色，像粗海盐一样；落在屋顶上的雪那么干燥，从头到尾，在城里的房子上积了二十六天；这比健在的最年老的住户所记得的任何时间都长。从种种迹象看，我们这时可能以为这种严酷的天气还要持续好几个星期，因为每一夜都比前一夜更加严寒；但是看哪，在没有任何明显原因的情况下，2 月 1 日开始解冻了，入夜之前还下了一些雨；这就证实了上面的观察：霜冻常常可以说是一下子就退去了，并没有寒冷的逐渐递减。2 月 2 日继续解冻；3 日，在南兰贝斯的一个院子里，成群的小昆虫在欢跳嬉戏，仿佛它们根本没有感觉到霜冻似的。这样微小的生物，它们小小的身体和更小的肢体里的体液为什么不结冰，是一个值得好奇探究的问题。

Severe frosts seem to be partial, or to run in currents; for, at the same juncture, as the author was informed by accurate correspondents, at Lyndon in the county of Rutland, the thermometer stood at 19: at Blackburn, in Lancashire, at 19: and at Manchester at 21, 20, and 18. Thus does some unknown circumstance strangely overbalance latitude, and render the cold sometimes much greater in the southern than the northern parts of this kingdom.

严重的霜冻似乎是局部的，或者像水流一样一股一股地流动；因为在同一时刻，据可靠的通信者告诉笔者，在拉特兰郡的林登，温度计停在 19 度；在兰开夏郡的布莱克本，19 度；在曼彻斯特，21 度、20 度和 18 度。某种未知的情形，就这样奇怪地压倒了纬度的影响，使这个王国南部的寒冷有时远比北部厉害。

The first week in December was very wet, with the barometer very low. On the 7th, with the barometer at 28-five-tenths, came on a vast snow, which continued all that day and the next, and most part of the following night; so that by the morning of the 9th the works of men were quite overwhelmed, the lanes filled so as to be impassable, and the ground covered twelve or fifteen inches without any drifting. In the evening of the 9th the air began to be so very sharp that we thought it would be curious to attend to the motions of a thermometer: we therefore hung out two; one made by Martin and one by Dollond, which soon began to show us what we were to expect; for, by ten o’clock, they fell to 21, and at eleven to 4, when we went to bed. On the 10th, in the morning, the quicksilver of Dollond’s glass was down to half a degree below zero; and that of Martin’s, which was absurdly graduated only to four degrees above zero, sunk quite into the brass guard of the ball; so that when the weather became most interesting this was useless. On the 10th, at eleven at night, though the air was perfectly still, Dollond’s glass went down to one degree below zero! This strange severity of the weather made me very desirous to know what degree of cold there might be in such an exalted and near situation as Newton. We had 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, and the next morning at 22, when mine was at ten! 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 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!

十二月的第一个星期非常潮湿，气压计很低。7 日，气压计在 28.5，下起了一场大雪，那天和第二天整天都在下，第二天夜里也下了大半夜；所以到 9 日早晨，人的一切工程都被完全淹没了，小路被填满，无法通行，地面上的雪有十二到十五英寸厚，没有一点吹积。9 日傍晚，空气开始变得非常凛冽，我们想，留意一下温度计的变化会是很有意思的事：于是我们在外面挂了两支；一支是马丁造的，一支是多隆德造的，它们很快就开始向我们显示我们将会遇到什么；因为到十点钟，它们降到了 21 度，十一点降到 4 度，那时我们就去睡觉了。10 日早晨，多隆德那支温度计的水银降到了零下半度；马丁那支荒唐地只刻到零上四度，水银完全沉进了水银球的铜护套里；所以在天气变得最有意思的时候，这一支就没有用了。10 日夜里十一点，虽然空气十分平静，多隆德的温度计降到了零下一度！这种奇怪的严寒，使我很想知道，在纽顿那样高而近的地方，寒冷可能达到什么程度。于是在 10 日早晨，我们给——先生写了信，恳求他把他那支亚当斯造的温度计挂到外面去，早晚留意一下；我们以为，在那样高的地方，比我的房子高出两百英尺或者更多，一定会有惊人的现象。可是看哪！10 日夜里十一点，它只降到 17 度，第二天早晨是 22 度，那时我的是 10 度！这种出乎意料的地方寒冷的颠倒，使我们大为不安，于是我们把我的一支温度计送了上去，心想——先生的那支一定是造得有毛病。可是，当两支仪器放在一起对照时，它们走得完全一致：所以，至少有一个夜晚，纽顿的寒冷比塞尔伯恩少 18 度；在整个霜冻期间，也少 10 度或 12 度；确实，当我们看到后果时，就很容易相信这一点了；因为我所有的地中海荚蒾、月桂、冬青栎、草莓树、柏树，甚至我的葡萄牙桂樱，还有（这更令人惋惜）我那道美丽的倾斜的桂樱树篱，都冻焦了；而在纽顿，同样的树木连一片叶子也没有掉！

A circumstance that I must not omit, because it was new to us, is, that on Friday, December the 10th, being bright sun-shine, the air was full of icy spiculae, floating in all directions, like atoms in a sun-beam 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 ?

有一个情形我不能漏掉，因为它对我们来说是新的：12 月 10 日星期五，阳光明亮，空中满是冰的细针，向四面八方飘浮，就像一束阳光射进暗室时光里的微尘。我们起初以为那是从我的高树篱上落下来的白霜的颗粒；但是我们到白霜落不到我们身上的开阔地方去观察，很快就确信并非如此。它们是空气中的水的颗粒在飘浮时冻结的呢，还是雪蒸发出来的东西在上升时冻结的呢？

This frost killed all the furze and most of the ivy, and in many places stripped the hollies of all their leaves. It came at a very early time of the year, before old November ended; and yet may be allowed from its effects to have exceeded any since 1739–40.

这场霜冻冻死了所有的荆豆和大部分常春藤，在许多地方把冬青的叶子都剥光了。它来得一年里很早，在旧历十一月结束之前；然而从它的后果来看，可以认为它超过了 1739–40 年以来的任何一次。