OF SELBORNE. 



153 



of the vegetable kind we may learn from 

 bees, to whom it is very grateful : and we 

 may be assured that it falls in the night, 

 because it is always first seen in warm still 

 mornings. 



On Chalky and sandy soils, and in the 

 hot villages shout London, the thermometer 

 has been often observed to mount as high 

 as 83 or 84 ; but with us, in this hilly and 

 woody district, I have hardly ever seen it 

 exceed 80 ; nor does it often arrive at that 

 pitch. The reason, I conclude, is, that our 

 dense clayey soil, so much shaded by trees, 

 is not so easily heated through as those 

 above-mentioned : and besides, our moun- 

 tains cause currents of air and breezes ; and 

 the vast effluvia from our woodlands temper 

 and moderate our heats. 



