Fog

Over London dropped with the suddenness of a theatre curtain a dense, dirty, yellow, cold, clammy, blanket of fog. For 24 hours the street lamps shed their ineffectual light, people walked cautiously, busses crashed into one another, policemen controlled traffic with rockets, etc.

The density varied, as it always does in London, depending upon the locality. In places people could see 15 feet ahead; in others, men and women moved forward using their hands as antennae, like insects. Comparatively few accidents were reported ; the major inconvenience, it seemed, was postponement of the annual Oxford and Cambridge soccer match.