BOOK III. CHAP. VI. 519 



tains, they are fcarce, very diminutive and feeble. They are 

 piincipally Iroublefome, and in fvvarms, after the periodical rains, 

 when the lowlands are drenched with water, and full of little pud- 

 dles, where thefe infeds depofite their eggs, and multiply the breed. 



They are therefore no pofitive harbingers of unhealthy fpots, ex- 

 cept where they are found at all feafons of the year, in the greateji 

 abundance ; fuch are tiie places, where they can enjoy a warm 

 atmofphere, and water undifturbed by rude winds. They are found 

 in the mod healthy fituations ; they fwarm in all the provinces of 

 North America, and even in Canada in the fummer time; but it is 

 very certain, that in thofe countries, as well as the Weft-Indies, they 

 are mod numerous in the lead healthful parts ; and that the fummer 

 feafon is the moft fickly time of the year in North Amerrca. Thefe 

 infeds cannot exitl long, nor propagate their fpecies well, without 

 llagnant water. Dry weather, dry expofures, and a cool air, are 

 equally obnoxious to them; their favourite haunts therefore, and 

 fuch as feem mofl to promote their multiplication, arc to be rejeded 

 as the leaft fit (in proportion) for mankind to inliabit, at leafl: 

 during thofe months in the year when they appear molt vigorous 

 and numerous. 



Butchers meat does not ordinarily grow tainted, in the lowlands of 

 Jamaica, under 30 to 36 hours (unlefs expofed to the fun). When 

 hung up in an airy (haded place, and proteded from flies, it will 

 keep longer. In the mountains, I have eat beef corned and boiled, 

 very good and fvveet, after five or fix days keeping ; and pork 

 pickled here of a twelvemontli old. Corpfes are kept, on the South 

 fide of the i{land,in general, twenty-four hours or more, according to 

 the nature of the difeafe, and feafon of the year, before interment, 

 without becoming ofFenlive. 



The effects obferved here on metals expofed to the air, is no 

 criterion of an unhealthy flate. This rufting, or corrofion, par- 

 ticularly remarked on iron or fteel, is thought to be occafioned by 

 a muriatic acid, or by nitrous particles, with which the air of this 

 ifland is impregnated. I have fcen iron work upon one of the 

 higheft ridges of the mountains, in as healthy a fituation as any on 

 the globe, corroded in as great a degree as in any part of the low- 

 lands. I obferved, on a large iron fcale beam fufpeiided clofe by the 



fea. 



