Petals Plucked from Sunny ClimesBrooks, A. M. (Abbie M.)
History
Petals Plucked from Sunny Climes
Brooks, A. M. (Abbie M.)
Cuba -- Description and travel; Florida -- Description and travel; Florida -- History
After sunset the frogs will be found the most demonstrative inhabitants,
at times, on the route to Tallahassee, which, strange as it may seem,
almost drown the car-whistle with their croakings--thus reminding us
that happiness, with some creatures, is not yet extinct in the world.
Probably no place can furnish a greater variety of frogs belonging to
the same genera, among which we find the bell-frog, speckled frog, green
frog, some of them being nine inches in length, measuring from the tip
of the nose to the terminus of the hind-foot toe, which amphibious
quadruped, when full grown, will weigh over a pound. The bell-frog is
supposed to have been named from the voice, which is fancied to be
exactly like a loud cow-bell. The following statement from a naturalist
on frogs will give us an idea of his impressions: "The bell-frogs being
very numerous, and uttering their voices in companies, or by large
districts, when one begins another answers--thus the sound is caught and
repeated from one to another a great distance, causing a surprising
noise for a few minutes, rising and sinking with the winds, then nearly
dying away, or is softly kept up by distant districts--thus the noise is
repeated continually, and as one becomes familiarized to it, the sound
is not unmusical, though at first, to strangers, it seems clamorous and
disgusting." Englishmen sent them home, more than a century since, as
Florida curiosities. The following is taken from the record of one's
arrival: "The pretty frog came safe and well, being now very brisk. Some
more of these innocent creatures would not be amiss. But pray send no
more mud-turtles--one is enough. The water-turtle is a pretty
species--came very well." Here is what Bartram wrote about our
dirt-daubers, which build their nests in the crevices and corners of
every neglected tenement: "I have sent you a variety of the clay cells
which the singing wasps built last summer, that I consider very
curious." All tourists have made Florida a point of scientific research,
in various ways, for many years.
Far in ether, stars above thee
Ever beam with purest light;
Birds of richest music love thee,
Flowers than Eden's hues more bright;
And love, young love, so fresh and fair,
Fills with his breath thy gentle air.
Tallahassee cannot be pointed out as the place where great literary
works first saw the light--such as the Commentaries of Cæsar, or where
Cicero rounded his periods, or Horace gave the last polish to his Odes,
or Milton conceived the grand idea of his Paradise Lost; but from its
choice shrubbery the golden oriole trills its melody, and the
mocking-bird warbles in the sky and on the house-tops, or fills the air
with song from neighboring trees at night.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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