New Jerfey, Raccoon. 187 



trod upon, or killed any other way. I call- 

 ed chi:kens to fuch places where they crept 

 on the ground in numbers ; but they would 

 not eat them. Nor did the wild birds like 

 them ; for the trees were full of thefe webs, 

 though whole flights of little birds had their 

 nefts in the gardens and orchards. 



May the 1 8th. Though it was already 

 pretty late in May, yet the nights were very- 

 dark here. About an hour after fun-fet, it 

 was fo dark, that it was impomble to read 

 in a book, though the type was ever fo 

 large. About ten o'clock, on a clear night, 

 the dark was fo much increafed, that it 

 looked like one of the darkeft ftar-light 

 nights in autumn, in Sweden. It likewife 

 feemed to me, that though the nights were 

 clear, yet the flars did not give fo great a 

 light as they do in Sweden. And as, about 

 this time, the nights are commonly dark, 

 and the Hey covered with clouds ; fo I would 

 compare them only to dark and cloudy 

 Swedijh winter nights. It was therefore, 

 at this time of the year, very difficult to 

 travel in fuch cloudy nights ; for neither 

 man nor horfe could find their way. The 

 nights, in general, feem very difagreeable 

 to me, in comparifon to the light and glo- 

 rious fummer nights of Sweden. Igno- 

 rance fometirnes makes us think flightly of 



our 



