Page:Three Years in Europe.djvu/186

152 had passed the hot days of summer in London and in the sea-side, and the dark cheerless foggy days and frequent rains of autumn had succeeded. Luckily our wish was fulfilled, and we had just a week of real English winter before we left!

On the 16th December it was so foggy at midday that it was necessary to light lamps. The next day it became intensely cold, and it snowed in the evening. A hard frost succeeded which remained for four or five days. Squares and housetops, parks and trees were all white! EveyEvery [sic] drop of water in the wayside was frozen into ice, and the cold was intense. In two or three days the Serpentine and other ornamental waters were frozen over, and there was skating in St. James's Park. My children watched the hundreds of skaters with great delight, and every morning we had a walk over the snow covered parks, and occasionally over the frozen waters! My little boy used to put out his tumbler of water outside the window every evening, and the first thing he called for in the morning was his ice!

On the 23rd December we left London. We had no storms in the way, but there was a heavy swell on the sea both in the Bay of Biscay and in the Mediterranean, and our steamer rolled a good deal. We had smooth sea, however, after we left Malta.

In the Red Sea I saw for the first time those large patches of red which have given the sea its name. The color is due to a kind of minute substance of reddish color which floats about sometimes for miles together, but whether it is animal or vegetable substance has not, I