LETTERS FROM ALABAMA. 
229 
through, some narrow belt of wood, or explored 
some little grove, was highly novel and picturesque; 
the flames, seen through the chequering leaves, 
played and twinkled, and ever and anon frightened 
a troop of little birds from their roost, and illumi- 
nated their plumage as they fluttered by. 
At length we reached the melon-patch, and 
having dismounted and tied our horses to the 
hanging twigs of the roadside trees, we crossed 
the rail-fence to beat the ground on foot. It was 
a large field, entirely covered with melons, the 
long stems of which trailed over the soft earth, 
concealing it with the coarse foliage and the great 
yellow flowers of the plant ; while the fruit, of all 
sizes, lay about in boundless profusion, from the 
berry just formed, to the fully matured and already 
rotten-rripe melon, as large as a butter-firkin. 
Abundant evidences were visible of the depre- 
dations of our game, for numbers of fine ripe 
melons lay about with large cavities scooped out 
of them, some showing by their freshness and 
cleanness that they had been only just attacked, 
while others were partially dried and discoloured 
by the burning sun. Moths of various species 
were collected around the wounded fruit, some of 
them (which I should have prized for my cabinet, 
if I had had time and means to capture and bring 
them home) inert and bloated with the juices 
which they had been sucking ; others fluttering by 
scores around, or attracted by the light to dance 
round the torches. 
The party had dispersed. I accompanied the 
planter to the edge of a wood at one side of the 
patch, while the young men took up similar sta- 
tions at some distance. The object was to inter- 
