senses will inform us ; and that this sweet clammy 

 substance is of the vegetable kind we may learn from 

 bees, to whom it is very grateful : we may also be 

 assured that it falls in the night, because it is always 

 first seen in still warm mornings. 



On chalky and sandy soils, and in the hot villages 

 about London, the thermometer has been often ob- 

 served to mount as high as 83 or 84 ; but with us, in 

 this hilly and woody district, I have hardly ev^er seen 

 it exceed 80 ; nor does it often arrive at that pitch. 

 The reason, I conclude, is, that our dense clayey soil, 

 so much shaded by trees, is not so easily heated 

 through as those above mentioned : and besides, our 

 mountains cause currents of air and breezes ; and the 

 vast evaporation from our woodlands tempers and 

 moderates our heats. 



LETTER CIX. 

 To THE Honourable Daines Barrington. 



The summer of the year 1783 was an amazing 

 and a portentous one, and full of horrible phenom- 

 ena ; for, besides the alarming meteors and tremen- 

 dous thunderstorms that affrighted and distressed 

 the different counties of this kingdom, the peculiar 

 haze, or smoky fog, that prevailed for many weeks 

 in this island, and in every part of Europe, and even 



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