Country News.

Southland Times, Issue 19117, 6 August 1903, Page 4

Country News.

GLENORCHY. (From our own correspondent.) Snow ! snow ! in all its awful splendour has been our affliction during* the past three weeks, and may remain • for come time in many parts. The weather was very warm at the beginning of the month, but on the Oth anil 10th it rained. On the evening of the 10th sn o w began to fall so heavily that before it stopped at midnight it wns eight irtehus deep nt the lake and two feet at Paradise. The sun did not come out strong till two days later, u nd this, with the hnrd frost, made' things ' miserable indeed. On the nights o f the loth .and lfith the thormometer was below zero, and .the cold was the. most intense thai -'wo «vi?r experienced here. As a proof of it, some of the big crocks, which wdre vory high owing to the preceding^ rains, were frozen over anS ..blocked with ice in an astonishing manner. Smaller streams were fro/en haid enough to bear loaded' drays. Hanging to t.he cliffs jtt the Maidenhair caves for the last fortnight were some of the tuost lovely icicles imaginable. In v.iany instances they hung from the rocks in rcgulnr walls, glittorine. like white marble in the sunshine. Stock have been, and arc still, suffering, terribly. No jgrass. ferns, shrubs or birch were avail-, able for them -until the last day or so and now the sunny faces arc the only spots clear of snow. Station owners and all their hfen have been busy almost day and night drawing the sheep from the hills out of two and three foot of show, down to the fiats, and feeding th6m On hay and stro.w, but all Sheep that are up the hills any dislajite must havo been frozen to death during the finst day or so of the 'fail. Most of the cattle are literally walking skeletons, now ; some are feeding them, but it is such, an unusual occurrence to have snow lying on the flats fon three weeks, that- nobody prepares for it, and the consequence is that the little crop m«st . .of 1 us have, soon vanishes when mobs of cattle have to bo hamd fed for any length of time, - . Kabbits are- dying through want of grass and scrub bark, and small birds are dropping dead with 'hunger aiid cold in multitudes everywhere while some people are furthering the destruction by laying poison both for them and the rabbits. However,, in spite 'of all the inconvenience a fall of