Terrible Snowstorm.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 4070, 28 April 1886, Page 3

Terrible Snowstorm.

The Edinburgh correspondent of the “ Otige Witness” says the first two days of March 1886 will long be remembered on account of the terrible snowstorm which then prevailed. The snow was very fine and powdery, and being driven by a voilent easterly gale the drifting was extreme. Railway blocks took place in all while roads in the country, and even portions of streets in the towns became impassable on account of the wreaths of snow. Many of the wreaths were from 6ft to 9ft in depth and even 12ft deep in some parts. Locomotion of every kind, save on foot, was almost entirely stopped for a day ; bat the telegraph wires unexpectedly stood the strain, so that thoagh the people in Edinburgh, for instance, bad no letters or newspapers from London for two days, they were not wholly shut out from a knowledge of what was happening elsewhere. This storm was but the climax of a severe and prolonged winter, which has been very trying to the flocks and to animal life generally. Hill stock is in an almost desperate case owing to the extreme difficulty of providing it with food, and the losses are certain to be very heavy. This is the more distressing as farmers have been at great trouble and expense in feeding their flocks by hand for nine weeks past. In the upper part of Aberdeenshire deer have been fed in like manner to keep them from starving. Hunger has made them quite tame ; so much so that one fine stag, if he thought bis breakfast was late, would come and rattle against the gamekeeper’s door with his antlers. The destruction of bird life caused by the deep snow has been very great, birds being found lying dead in all directions near Arbroath ; within a space of a few hundred yards, over 1006 larks alone were found dead.