LETTER XXVIII.

Selborne, Feb. 7, 1776.

DEAR SIR,-IN heavy fogs, on elevated situations especially, trees are perfect alembics; and no one that has not attended to such matters can imagine how much water one tree will distil in a night's time, by condensing the vapour, which trickles down the twigs and boughs so as to make the ground below quite in a float. In Newton Lane, in October, 1775, on a misty day, a particular oak in leaf dropped so fast that the cartway stood in puddles and the ruts ran with water, though the ground in general was dusty.

In some of our smaller islands in the West Indies, if I mistake not, there are no springs or riv. ers; but the people are supplied with that neces sary element, water, merely by the dripping of . some large tall trees, which, standing in the bosom of a mountain, keep their heads constantly envel. oped with fogs and clouds, from which they dis. pense their kindly, never-ceasing moisture, and so render those districts habitable by condensation alone.

Trees in leaf have such a vast proportion more of surface than those that are naked, that, in the. ory, their condensations should greatly exceed those that are stripped of their leaves; but as the former imbibe also a great quantity of moisture, it is diffi cult to say which drip most; but this I know, that deciduous trees that are entwined with much ivy seem to distil the greatest quantity. Ivy-leaves are smooth, and thick, and cold, and therefore condense very fast; and, besides, evergreens imbibe

very little. These facts may furnish the intelligent with hints concerning what sort of trees they should plant round small ponds that they would wish to be perennial, and show them how advantageous some trees are in preference to others.

Trees perspire profusely, condense largely, and check evaporation so much that woods are always moist no wonder, therefore, that they contribute much to pools and streams.

That trees are great promoters of lakes and rivers appears from a well-known fact in North America; for, since the woods and forests have been grubbed and cleared, all bodies of water are much diminished; so that some streams, that were very considerable a century ago, will not now drive a common mill.* Besides, most woodlands, forests, and chases with us abound with pools and morasses, no doubt for the reason given above.

To a thinking mind, few phenomena are more strange than the state of little ponds on the summits of chalk-hills, many of which are never dry in the most trying droughts of summer. On chalkhills, I say, because in many rocky and gravelly soils springs usually break out pretty high on the sides of elevated grounds and mountains; but no persons acquainted with chalky districts will allow that they ever saw springs in such a soil but in valleys and bottoms, since the waters of so pervious a stratum as chalk all lie on one dead level, as well-diggers have assured me again and again.

Now we have many such little round ponds in this district, and one in particular on our sheepdown, three hundred feet above my house, which, * Vide Kalm's Travels in North America.

though never above three feet deep in the middle, and not more than thirty feet in diameter, and containing, perhaps, not more than two or three hundred hogsheads of water, yet never is known to fail, though it affords drink for three hundred or four hundred sheep, and for at least twenty head of large cattle besides. This pond, it is true, is overhung by two moderate beeches, that doubtless, at times, afford it much supply; but then we have others as small, that, without the aid of trees, and in spite of evaporation from sun and wind, and perpetual consumption by cattle, yet constantly maintain a moderate share of water, without overflowing in the wettest seasons, as they would do if supplied by springs. By my journal of May, 1775, it appears that "the small and even considerable ponds on the vales are now dried up, while the small ponds on the very tops of hills are but little affected." Can this difference be accounted for from evaporation alone, which certainly is more prevalent in bottoms? or, rather, have not those elevated pools some unnoticed recruits, which in the nighttime counterbalance the waste of the day, without which the cattle alone must soon exhaust them? And here it will be necessary to enter more minutely into the cause. Dr. Hales, in his Vegetable Statics, advances, from experiment, that "the moister the earth is, the more dew falls on it in a night; and more than a double quantity of dew falls on a surface of water than there does on an equal surface of moist earth.” Hence we see that water, by its coolness, is enabled to assimilate to itself a large quantity of moisture nightly by condensation; and that the air, when loaded with

fogs and vapours, and even with copious dews, can alone advance a considerable and never-failing resource. Persons that are much abroad, and travel early and late, such as shepherds, fishermen, &c., can tell what prodigious fogs prevail in the night on elevated downs, even in the hottest parts of summer, and how much the surfaces of things are drenched by those swimming vapours, though to the senses, all the while, little moisture seems to fall.

LETTER XXIX.

Selborne, April 29, 1776. DEAR SIR,-ON August the 4th, 1775, we surprised a large viper as it lay in the grass, basking in the sun, with its young, fifteen in number, the shortest of which measured full seven inches, and were about the size of full-grown earthworms. This little fry had the true viper spirit about them, showing great alertness: they twisted and wriggled about, and set themselves up, and gaped very wide when touched with a stick, showing manifest tokens of menace and defiance, though as yet they had no manner of fangs that we could find, even with the help of our glasses.

To a thinking mind, nothing is more wonderful than that early instinct which impresses young animals with the notion of the situation of their nat ural weapons, and of using them properly in their own defence, even before those weapons subsist or are formed. Thus a young cock will spar at his adversary before his spurs are grown, and a calf or lamb will push with their heads before their horns

are sprouted. In the same manner did these young adders attempt to bite before their fangs were in being. The dam, however, was furnished with very formidable ones, which we lifted up (for they fold down when not used), and cut them off with our scissors..

DEAR SIR,

LETTER XXX.

Selborne, May 9, 1776.

"Admórunt ubera tigres."

WE have remarked in a former letter how much incongruous animals, in a lonely state, may be attached to each other from a spirit of sociality; in this it may not be amiss to recount a different motive, which has been known to create as strange a fondness.

My friend had a little helpless leveret brought to him, which the servants fed with milk in a spoon, and about the same time his CAT had kittens, which