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NOTES ON THE PROLONGED FROST, 1890-91.
By J. FRENCH (Felstead).
[Read February 28th, 1891.]
A FROST of eight weeks' duration is a novelty with the present generation and
gives rise to phenomena correspondingly unusual and worthy of remark.
It affects more or less (by deprivation of food) the balance of animal life, and
its effect on the disintegration of soils and rocks invites observation, inasmuch as
the ordinary work of several winters seems to have been carried out in as many
weeks.
We have no means of judging the extent to which animal life is affected, but
provided observations were reasonably multiplied we might infer the directions in
which changes would take place. In the case of birds, especially, the disturbing
influence of man becomes apparent, and this to an extent proportionate with his
civilization. Thus it cannot be doubted that in England the kindly feeling
towards the feathered race compares favourably with that obtaining in 1814, the
year of the last prolonged frost. Man has distributed immense quantities of food
to the birds during the last two months and herein lies one disturbing element.
Those birds which are shy get little or none of this bounty : those, on the other
hand, usually frequenting the haunts of men have been fed, perhaps sufficiently,
and may suffer no diminution of numbers. Sparrows and starlings are notable
instances. All attempts that I have seen made to feed the shyer members, of
which rooks, thrushes, blackbirds and finches may be taken as examples, have met
with indifferent success. Although these, with me, have all put in an appearance
daily, I cannot but think that very few of the early comers have survived. Many
thrushes dead of starvation have been picked up on the very ground where the
starling has flourished, and it must be noted that suitable food has been supplied.
I am also credibly informed that after the frost of 1814 many hundreds of starved
rooks were removed from Sheepcotes Wood at Little Waltham, which was then,
as it is now, the winter home of all the rooks of the district. We should have,
therefore, as an ultimate result of this eight weeks' frost an excess of starlings and
sparrows and a diminution in the numbers of many other species.
Connected with that observation of the dead rooks in 1814, I was informed that
that winter told heavily on hares and rabbits, many of the trees in that wood being
denuded of bark to the height at which these animals could graze. Certain it is
also that rats and weasels had vacated the wood at the time or the dead rooks
would not have remained unmolested. I cannot hear, however, upon enquiry,
that hares or rabbits have suffered very much this winter.
A curious phenomenon in relation to some pond fish has been here observed.
It was noticed that upon breaking the ice in certain ponds the fish came to the
hole and remained there with their mouths protruding, giving the idea of vitiated
water under the ice. The explanation seems to be that at the outset, in consequence
of the state of the springs, the ponds were low. The increase of the ice also
further diminished the quantity of available water and thus the water remaining
really became vitiated. It would be curious to follow up the possible result to
the pond fauna of a frost sufficient to congeal all the water. Death, almost cer-
tainly, and the first stage of fossilisation, probably, would ensue, and this brings
us to notice the geological effects of a prolonged frost.