GILBERT WHITE AGAIN 177 



posed towards the water." This is a curious fact to 

 him. A neighbor of his, in ploughing late in the 

 fall, turned a water-rat out of his hihernaculum in 

 a field far removed from any water. The rat had 

 laid up more than a gallon of potatoes for its winter 

 food. This was another curious fact that set the 

 writer speculating. His correspondent tells him of 

 a heronry near some manor-house that excites his 

 curiosity much. " Fourscore nests of such a bird on 

 one tree is a rarity which I would ride half as many 

 miles to get a sight of." Such a lively curiosity had 

 the parson. His thirst for exact knowledge was so 

 great that on one occasion he took measurements of 

 the carcass of a moose when he was probably com- 

 pelled to hold his nose to finish the task. At one 

 place he heard of a woman who professed to cure 

 cancers by the use of toads ; some of his brother 

 clergymen believed the story, but when he came 

 to sift the evidence he made up his mind that the 

 woman was a fraud. 



He said truly, " There is such a propensity in 

 mankind towards deceiving and being deceived, that 

 one cannot safely relate anything from common re- 

 port, especially in print, without expressing some 

 degree of doubt and suspicion." 



The observations of hardly one man in five hun- 

 dred are of any value for scientific purposes. 



White had the true scientific caution, and was, as 

 a rule, very careful to verify his statements. 



Of course the science of White's time was far be- 

 hind our own. The phenomenon of the weather, for 



