200 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



with an auger, and a poor devoted shrew-mouse was 

 thrust in alive, and plugged in, no doubt, with several 

 quaint incantations long since forgotten. As the cere- 

 monies necessary for such a consecration are no longer 

 understood, all succession is at an end, and no such tree 

 is known to subsist in the manor, or hundred. 

 As to that on the Plestor, 



" The late vicar stubb'd and burnt it," 



•when he was way -warden, regardless of the remonstrances 

 of the by-standers, who interceded in vain for its preserv- 

 ation, urging its power and efficacy, and alleging that it 

 had been 



" Religione patrum multos servata per annos." 



I am, etc. 



LETTER XXIX 



Selborne, Jan. 7, 1776. 

 Deab 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 

 ihe 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 

 fire supplied with that necessary element, water, merely 



