Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1845-03-07
From the "ChrOnicle of the Seasons"
Snow Storms.
w. H. P.

SO dangerous, and perhaps we may say 81
grand, as those of mountainous countries
We are not, therefore, so forciby impresse,
by these phenomena as Highlanders, an'
the inhabitants of Alpine countries and in
deed, unless we attend to the recorded in
stances of celebrated snow storms in Scot
land and other countries, we can form but
faint idea ofthe subject.
The shepherds of Scotland hand dowr
from father to son the terrors of the "Thir
teen DIRTY Days." a term applied to a peri
cd when Scotland was visited by a fearful
snow storm, in the year 1860; indeed, it is
said that even now, the mention of this pc
Rod to an old shepherd, on a stormy winters
night, seldom fails to impress his mind with
religious awe, and often sets him on his
knees before that Being who alone can avert
such another calamity. For thirteen days
and nights the falling and drifting of the
snow never abated the ground was covered
by frozen snow when it commenced, and
during all the time of its continuance the
sheep were without food The shepherds
had the pain of seeing their poor helpless
flocks die off, without having the power to
shield them either from cold or from hunger.
About the fifth day Of the storm, the young
sheep became sleepy and torpid, which was
generally followed by death in the course of
few hours: or if exposed to the cutting
wind, they were sometimes deprived Of life
almost Immediately after the topper COM
menced. But the tenth day of the storm,
SO many sheep had died, that the shepherds
began to build up large semi-circular walls
of the frozen dead bodies, in order to afford
some sort of shelter for the sheep which
still remained alive. But these began by
this time to suffer so much from want of
food, that they tore one another's wool with
their teeth.
At the termination of the storm, on the
thirteenth day, there were many farms on
which not a single sheep was left alive.
Misshapen walls Of dead bodies, surround
ing central knot Of other sheep, also dead,
was the sight which in too many instances
met the eye of the ruined shepherd or farmer
On those farms which were situated in the
glens between mountains, many Of the sheep
survived the storm, but their constitutions
suffered so severely, that few ultimately re-
covered. Nine-tenths Of the sheep in the
south of Scotland are supposed to have per-
ished By this snow storm. In the pastoral
district of Eskdale--Muir, out of twenty
thousand sheep, only forty young wethers
and FIVE old ewes were preserved. Many of
the farms were so utterly ruined, as to be-
come tenantless and valueless for several
years.
About sixty or seventy years after this E.
vent, one single day of snow was so extraor-
dinarily severe that upwards of twenty
thousand sheep, as well as some Of the shep-
herds, we're destroyed. An anecdote has
been related in connexion with this storm
which shows the degree of attention with
which the Scottish shepherds notice the APP
pearance Of the sky.
The day in question was the 9th of
March it was Monday and on the previous
day the weather was remarked to be unusu-
ally warm. A party Of peasants, going
home from Yarrow church ON Sunday
evening, saw a shepherd who had collected
all his sheep by the side of wood. Know
ing that he was religious man, and unac-
customed to collect his sheep in that man
ner on the Sabbath, they asked him his mo-
tive, to which he replied, that he had no
ticed certain appearances in the sky which
led him to conclude that snow storm was
approaching. All the villagers laughed at
him; but he bore their jokes good-humor-
eddy, and provided for the safety of his sheep
The fatal storm occurred on the following
day, and this shepherd was the only one who
saved the whole of his sheep. We may re-
mark, in reference to weather observations
such as these, that provided they be kept
within reasonable limits, they are very vau-
able. Persons who put undivided faith in
"weather almanacs,' and in the popular o.
mems and prognostics which are so album
dant, are liable to be duped and led into re-
peated errors; but those who pretend to
despise the experience of humble observers,
and to lay down doctrines relating to the
weather, from theory only, err almost as
much on the other side.
Perhaps the most extraordinary snow
storm with which Scotland was ever visited
was that which occurred on the Oath of
January, 1874 extraordinary both in rela-
ton to the enormous depth to which the
snow accumulated in few hours, and to
the devastation which it accustomed
Mr. Hogg, so well known as the 'Ettrick
Shepherd was then young man, and was
involved in the consequences of this storm
In the evening of his life he wrote graph
ic account of the occurrence, from which
we shall borrow as much as will suffice to
convey an idea ofthis remarkable storm.
Mr. Hogg and few young friends had
formed themselves into sort Of literary So
ciety for the reading and criticism of essays
and papers. They were all shepherds, and