RETURN FROM PITTSBURG 291 



there found, had the greatest share in this phenom- 

 enon.* 



Hard and continuous rains and a bad road delayed 

 our journey ; and the halt in these woods was all the 

 more dismal and tedious, since returning we were 

 obliged to follow the same road as we had come. 

 There was already heavy hoar-frost almost every night 

 in the mountains Wolves and bears had within a few 

 days done much damage in these parts among the 

 calves, sheep, and hogs, which are let run night and 

 day regardless in the woods. As little thought is taken 

 to protect these animals against danger by keeping 

 them in stalls as the people themselves give to warding 

 off thieves. Nowhere are doors barred for the safety 

 of those sleeping within ; for in these patriarchal 

 regions where the general poverty does not yet com- 

 pensate the trouble of stealing, few thieves so far find 

 a support. 



Dr. Peters, already mentioned above, we found on 

 our return at home. He boasted that he had on his 

 book for a year's praxis almost 200 Pd. Pensylv. Cur- 

 rent, but unfortunately cannot collect any money from 

 the people, that being a scarce article in the mountains, 

 and he has no use for what they bring in kind. He 

 makes a charge of two Spanish dollars for inocula- 



* It was not known to me until later that Dr. Franklin had 

 made the same remark in accounts given by him of swampy 

 brooks in Jersey and elsewhere, and that this phenomenon 

 shows itself in a good many slimey streams where combustible 

 effluvium, or marsh-air, is contained in the water, that being 

 the material cause. Several examples of this sort are given in 

 Fried. Knoll's entertaining Naturwunder; See, his chapter 

 Ents&ndbares Geu'dsser oder lustige Feuersbriinste auf Quellen 

 nnd Fliissen. + 



