SOOTHING EFFECTS OF CLIMATE. 117 
water infested with sharks, a dozen or more of them being in 
sight. 
A gentleman who has spent considerable time in the West 
Indies, assured us that sharks are cautious if not cowardly, and 
that they will never cite a man if he splashes the water. Per- 
haps, before trusting too much even to the warm water sharks, 
it will be prudent to first make sure that their hunger has been 
satisfied. When looking for his breakfast or his dinner, in the 
absence of fish, now and then a shark may make a bold dash for 
human flesh. The very great clearness of the Bahama waters 
may operate in favor of safety, and the fish that they crave for 
-food may be less abundant in the colder water of the Florida 
Gulf. If the Bahama sharks are very dangerous, it is singular 
that so few facts are reported which indicate it, and that the 
divers continue to be so numerous and so bold. 
In our sleeping room at Nassau, it was sometimes found nec- 
essary to use the mosquito bars with which our bed was provided. ° 
We found this insect unlike the little nocturnal musicians so 
common at the north. When hunted upon the wall in the morn- . 
ing, a Nassau mosquito appears strangely indifferent. Often 
when first struck at and not hit, it does not seem at all disturbed 
and remains in the same place. Then when aroused sufficiently 
to fly from the threatened danger, it makes a very short journey. - 
to another resting place not far from the first, and looks around 
with a calm quiet expression of supreme indifference. A lady — 
justly remarked—‘“‘ you don’t see them sitting ’round that way 
at home, but here they breathe a lazy atmosphere and live on 
lazy blood.” 
Little facts and circumstances evidence great truths. The’ 
influence of climate may be as well shown by a mouse as by a 
manoramammoth. Therefore, it is, that we give another little 
incident that came under our observation. 
