the annoyances and inconveniences of the
country may fairly be summed up, under these three heads, thunder, heat,
and troublesome vermin.

I confess, in the hottest part of the summer, they have sometimes very
loud and surprising thunder, but rarely any damage happens by it. On the
contrary, it is of such advantage to the cooling and refining of the
air, that it is oftener wished for than feared. But they have no
earthquakes, which the Caribbee islands are so much troubled with.

Their heat is very seldom troublesome, and then only by the accident of
a perfect calm, which happens perhaps two or three times in a year, and
lasts but a few hours at a time; and even that inconvenience is made
easy by cool shades, open airy rooms, summer houses, arbors, and
grottos: but the spring and fall afford as pleasant weather as Mahomet
promised in his paradise.

All the troublesome vermin that ever I heard anybody complain of, are
either frogs, snakes, musquitoes, chinches, seed ticks, or red worms, by
some called potato lice. Of all which I shall give an account in their
order.

Some people have been so ill informed, as to say, that Virginia is full
of toads, though there never yet was seen one toad in it. The marshes,
fens, and watery grounds, are indeed full of harmless frogs which do no
hurt, except by the noise of their croaking notes: but in the upper
parts of the country, where the land is high and dry, they are very
scarce. In these swamps and running streams, they have frogs of an
incredible bigness, which are called bull frogs, from the roaring they
make. Last year I found one of these near a stream of fresh water, of so
prodigious a magnitude, that when I extended its legs, I found the
distance betwixt them to be seventeen inches and an half. If any are
good to eat, these must be the kind.

Some people in England are startled at the very name of the rattle
snake, and fancy every corner of that province so much pestered with
them, that a man goes in constant danger of his life, that walks abroad
in the woods. But this is as gross a mistake, as most of the other ill
reports of that country. For in the first place this snake is very
rarely seen; and when that happens, it never does the least mischief,
unless you offer to disturb it, and thereby provoke it to bite in its
own defence. But it never fails to give you fair warning, by making a
noise with its rattle, which may be heard at a convenient distance. For
my own par