Page:Extracts from the letters and journals of George Fletcher Moore.djvu/74

 48 ; a thrush resembling the field fare; a small bird the size of a wren, but of splendid ultramarine colour. There are many other varieties, but I have not time to enumerate them.

Fish abound in the river, but without a net of peculiar construction (a trammel net) it is not easy to catch them—I have taken a few perch, however, one small turtle, and shell fish like the clam.

The climate in summer, in the middle of the day, is very warm; most agreeable in the morning and evening, cool and pleasant at night, sometimes even cold as it approaches morning. In winter, notwithstanding what has been said of it, I am told the weather is delightful—a moderate warmth during the day, and the night so cold as to make you enjoy a fire; the rains only occasional, and not of long duration.

Insects are now wonderfully numerous. Ants in great quantities and of many varieties of size and colour, from the lion ant, an inch long, to the small brown ant, which can insinuate itself into the most minute crevice. These seize upon whatever is eatable, and devour it in a short time. The ground seems alive with white ants, and the trees swarm with them inside and out; every thing here teems with life.

The principles of increase and the agents of destruction are so actively employed, that there seems to be a rapid round of production and decay, unknown to your more moderate climate.