I have been since informed by an _amateur_, who resided many years in this country, and made this species of _music_ his peculiar study, that on these occasions the _treble_ is performed by the tree-frogs, the smallest and most _beautiful_ species; they are always of the same colour as the bark of the tree they inhabit, and their note is not unlike the chirp of a cricket: the next in size are our _counter tenors_; they have a note resembling the _setting_ of a _saw_. A still larger species sing _tenor_; and the _under part_ is supported by the bull-frogs; which are as large as a man's foot, and _bellow_ out the _bass_ in a tone as loud and sonorous as that of the animal from which they take their name. To an Englishman lately arrived in this country there are other phenomena, equally curious; as _fire-flies, night-hawks &c.;_ but, above all, such tremendous peals of thunder and flashes of lightning, as can be conceived only by those who have been in southern latitudes. I have often thought, if an enthusiastic _cockney_, of weak nerves, who had never been out of the sound of Bow bell, could suddenly be conveyed from his bed, in the middle of the night, and laid, fast asleep, in an american swamp, he would, on waking, fancy himself in the infernal regions: his first sensation would be from the stings of a myriad of mosquitoes; waking with the smart, his ears would be assailed with the horrid noises of the frogs; on lifting up his eyes he would have a faint view of the night-hawks, flapping their ominous wings over his devoted head, visible only from the glimmering light of the fire-flies, which he would naturally conclude were sparks from the bottomless pit. Nothing would be wanting at this moment to complete the illusion, but one of those dreadful explosions of thunder and lightning, so _extravagantly_ described by Lee, in Oedipus:-- "Call you these peals of thunder, but the yawn or bellowing clouds? by Jove, they seem to me the world's last groans, and those large sheets of flame it's last blaze!" I have often traversed the woods by myself at night, and sometimes during _such scenes_; and though I was conscious that all round me proceeded from natural causes, I could not at these times entirely forget, "All that the _priest_ and all the nurse had taught." Farewell.--Believe me Yours very sincerely, &c., * * * * * _Philadelphia, August 10th, 1794._ DEAR SIR, Having a few weeks vacation at the theatre, we agreed upon a scheme to give three concerts at Lancaster, a town in Pennsylvania, about seventy miles west of this city. Our band was small, but select; and our singers Darley, and miss Broadhurst. We crossed the Scuylkill about two miles below the Falls.