A lady writes : "We have had a sharp experience of your familiar Northern rigors this winter, and as our houses in this semi-tropic clime are built to woo the ocean breezes and to keep their occupants cool, we suffered greatly from the bitter blasts. Early in January, we were revelling in myriads of roses and the spicy odors of the acacia and fragrant olive. Suddenly a "blizzard" came, swooping down from the northwest, and blighted all the beauty and bloom of our gardens. Orange trees and shrubbery were killed, every flower and almost every green thing ditto, water pipes burst, darkies frozen - body and soul as it were - energies paralyzed and the whole community benumbed".