Late in August, I think the 25th, a very
thick dense fog prevailed. The air was not, however, at all _chill_. The
heat and closeness was most oppressive. This continued all night, and
anything similar to it I never before saw, with so high a temperature.
It occurred also on the following night. _On the morning after the fog,
the whole of the potato fields had precisely the disorganized appearance
they have after a night's frost_. They soon became black, and the
disease followed in a very few days."
In the _Gardener's Chronicle_ of the 5th of September, it is mentioned
that shortly before, and about the time the disease appeared at
Aberdeen, "there was a succession of unusually dense fogs, followed by
great warmth."
In one of the Orkney Islands it was remarked by a farmer that "a very
dense fog rested in patches on certain parts of the island; at times it
was so defined, that the observer could point out the exact measure of
ground over which it rested. It hung low, and had the appearance of a
light powdering of snow. In passing, it fell down on his small farm, and
_he smelt it very unpleasant_, exactly like, he says, the bilge water of
a ship--a sulphurous sort of stench.
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