LETTER XXIX. 



To the same. 



SELBORNE, Feb. jtk, 1776. 



5EAR 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 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 mistake 

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

 that necessary element, water, merely by the dripping of some large, 

 tall trees, which, standing in the bosom of a mountain, keep their 

 heads constantly enveloped with fogs and clouds, from which they 



