166 WHITE 



the bystanders, who interceded in vain for its preservation, 

 urging its power and efficacy, and alleging that it had been 



u Religione patrum multos servata per annos." 



I am, etc. 

 NOTE 



1 " When a horse in the fields happened to be suddenly seized with any- 

 thing like a numbness in his legs, he was immediately judged by the old 

 persons to be either planet-struck, or shrew-struck. The mode of cure 

 which they prescribed, and which they considered in all cases infallible, 

 was to drag the animal through a piece of bramble that grew at both ends." 



BlNGLEY. 



LETTER XXIX 



SELBORNE, Feb. jth, 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 vapor, 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 cart-way 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 mis- 

 take not, there are no springs or rivers ; but the people are 

 supplied with that necessary element, water, merely by the 

 dripping of some large teak-trees, which, standing in the bosom 

 of a mountain, keep their heads constantly enveloped with fogs 

 and clouds, from which they dispense their kindly, never-ceas- 

 ing moisture ; and so render those districts habitable by con- 

 densation alone. 



Trees in leaf have such a vast proportion more of surface 

 than those that are naked, that, in theory, 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 difficult to say which drip most ; but this I know, that decid- 

 uous trees that are entwined with much ivy seem to distil the 



