102 
LETTEKS FEOM ALABAMA. 
fully slender, and their colour usually chaste and 
pleasing ; that of the present species is a lavender- 
blue, the head and neck purplish. 
A pretty moth which I had not seen before ( Cal- 
limorpha Lecontei) was rather numerous : the wings 
are horizontal, white, fantastically marked into 
numerous divisions by bands of dark-brown, much 
more conspicuous in some specimens than in others. 
Cahawba lies on the opposite bank of the 
Alabama from me, that is, the right bank as you 
go down. The Cahawba River empties itself into 
the Alabama just above it, so that the town stands 
on a point of land. This is a river of considerable 
length, and is navigable for some distance by 
steamers during the winter. The summer heats 
diminish the volume of all the rivers materially ; 
even the Alabama is now so much shrunk, that 
steamers can no longer come up so far as this, 
so that water communication with Mobile is cut off 
for some months, except for very small boats. 
I followed the road until it led me to the very 
water’s edge. Cahawba was in sight, just before 
me, but the broad river rolled between ; I was for a 
moment at a loss how to cross, but presently per- 
ceived a flat ferry-boat on the opposite side, lying 
under the precipitous bank. I sent a shout across, 
'and two old nigger-fellers” began to shove their 
flat over. No house or inn was near to put up my 
horse, so I took him into a little wood, and tied 
him to a tree. This is a common practice ; in the 
woods immediately round a place of worship, on a 
Sunday, we may see a hundred or more saddled 
horses usually tied by the bridle to a small hang- 
ing twig, and not to the trunk ; the reason of 
which is, partly to give the horse more scope to 
