BATHING-POOL. 81 



caudifasciatus), that have built their nest in a shrub 

 thereon, and make the air vocal with their early cries 

 of o p — p p — p — Q, as they seem impatiently to 

 call for the rising sun. Suddenly the brook plunges 

 over a ridge of limestone rock into a secluded pool, 

 hidden from view by overhanging trees, and by the 

 pasture boundary-wall, which crosses the stream just 

 at the waterfall. Thick matted masses of the Wall- 

 Maiigold, festooned with the clustered blossoms of a 

 yellow Convolvulus, and the magnificent flowers of 

 the Violet Hogmeat [IpomcBa violacea) cover the 

 wall, and project far over the water on each side of 

 the cascade, the spray from which keeps them ever 

 verdant, and ever in bloom ; while the living prin- 

 ciple preserves them from becoming covered with the 

 tuberculous incrustation of friable lime, which is 

 thickly deposited upon every other object within 

 reach of the spray. A tall Fiddlewood tree spreads 

 its branches over the spot, gay at the time of which 

 I speak (June), with its conspicuous bunches of 

 crimson berries, relieving the dark green hue of its 

 foliage. 



To this little clear pool I usually resorted in the 

 middle of the day to bathe ; delighting to hold my 

 head under the waterfall, and to receive its sudden 

 coldness like an electric shock upon my back, 

 until the stimulus ceased ; and then to lie at full 

 length in the shallow, just covered by the limpid 

 element. How refreshing this is, those only can tell, 

 who have felt the lassitude produced by a vertical 

 sun ; and how conducive to health, I can thankfully 

 testify. Several pleasant observations have I made 



