Terrific Snowstorm in England.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1703, 8 May 1886, Page 2

Terrific Snowstorm m England.

The late winter is said to have been the most severe known m England for twenty seven years. The London correspondent of the Argus writes : — " A snowstorm, or rather a series of storms, has t'lis week given us some novel results. In Wales, m the hilly districts of Lancashire, Westmoreland, and Cumberland, m North Yorkshire and m Northumberland, railway communication has been blockod by immense snowwreaths. Numerous trains have been snowed up on their passage, and m some cases passengers have been confined m the carrriages without hope of relief for 48 hours and more. Their sufferings have been such as m this country/ at any rate, are without example. In one case passengers were forced to drink the water out of the foot-warmers, to break open the hampers of the parcels post for food, and we hear of certain of the more fortunate sort waiting with eagerness whilst a rabbit was cooked m the engine furnace. In the country districts ther* has been some loss ot life, due to the imprudence of persons anxious to reach home whilst the storm was raging 1 , and m Wales particularly many thousands of sheep and lambs have been lost m the hills. Some of the trains coming south with cattle for the London market have also met with serious losses, the poor beasts being covered by the falling snow and then frozen to death ; and at Holyhead an Atlantic steamer — the Missouri, went ashore m the driving sleet, and has since become a total wreok."