250 NATURAL APPEARANCES 



pious showers, which frequently beat down the futt- 

 grown corn, and sometimes deluge the country with 

 sudden floods. Thunder and lightning generally 

 accompany these summer storms. 



The effects of the great heat on the human body 

 are agreeably allayed, by the various wholesome 

 fruits which Providence offers at this season for the 

 use of man. Those which are now ripe are, of 

 all, the most cooling and refreshing; as currants, 

 gooseberries, raspberries, strawberries, and cherries. 

 These are no less salutary and useful than the richest 

 products of the warmer climates. 



The luxury of cooling shades is now peculiarly 

 grateful, and multitudes flock from all quarters to 

 enjoy the invigorating effects of sea bathing ; while 

 others of the debilitated and valetudinarian tribe as- 

 semble at the medicinal well, in order to allay the 

 feverish heat in their blood, or improve their consti- 

 tutions, by drinking the cooling and reanimating 

 draught at the spring 



Potatoes and hops flower in this month. The jes- 

 samines and white lily now ornament the garden. 

 Mushrooms appear. Frogs migrate from ponds. 

 Hoary beetles appear. Bees kill and expel the 

 drones Ants, for frugality, foresight, and industry 

 proverbial, quit their nests to found ryjw colonies. 

 Ants are divided into male, female, and neuter. 

 The neuters are labourers, without wings ; males 

 and females have w gs. An ant hill is a large 

 vaulted cha . ber a> d has three or four passages to 

 it. In the centre of it is the old one, and the young 



