The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-08-18
PETERSBURG LETTER.
Correspondence of the Richmond Dispatch
Fears of a Sickly Autumn-A Chapter on
Birds and other Game-FTuitless Efpe-
dition in Pursuit of Horse-th'eueS.
PETERSBURG, August II, 1868.


The Indications Of another slckly season
are threatening if not unmistakaple. Cnllls
and feyers are becoming more frequent 'nah
conld be wished. Ever since the war THIS
section of country has been more liable 10
o,tnmnal diseases than formerly. This mas
heen accounted for by the great mass OF
veoetation induced by the excessive rains OF
snring and early summer; and II this De
re real cause, we have no reason to expect
INV exemption this season, for 1t is only a
renetition of the last, with the additional
aggravation of o higher temperature.
A favorite sport at this time with young
men of leisure is shooting evening bats.
On the outskirts of the city there are great
numbers of these birds, making the sport
very exciting, for it requires both quick
eve and quick touch to arrest them IN
their zigzag flight. In ashort time the sora
will be in season. The marshes OF the APP
pomattox abound in them, and though they
ore usually taken in more summary man
ner than by shooting, they afford pleasing
object ON which to expend as much ammu-
nition as man can conveniently carry.
OF all the birds of this climate, they afford
the greatest delicacy. They are the moro
interesting, also, from the mystery IN which
their natural history is involved. They
come. no one knows from whence; and they
eo-in the twinkling Of an eye, so to say
no one knows whittier. The sora is followed
by the partridge, furnishing by all odds
the choicest sport for the country gentle
man. During the war there was an extra
ordinary increase of this bird, for there
was none to modest or make them afraid.
Since then the negroes have taken to trap
ping them, and possibly their numbers have
been reduced, but they are still quite
abundant. There has also been great in
crease of other game, such as wild turkeys,
hare, and deer, together with coons and
opossums and if the grand sport of the
chase was still kept up with spirit, there Is
abundant food for its indulgence. A man
possessing the faculty of Samson in this
line might also capture his hundreds.
Two of our most experienced policemen
have Just returned, after long and fruit
less search after the thieves who sole two
of Mr.. Gilliam's horses, across the river, a
few weeks ago. They were tracked for
considerable distance, and their route
ascertained as far as the North Carolina
line, where all trace was lost. From the
descriptions given Of the men there IS little
doubt that one of them was Montelle, and
his companion the man that escaped with
him from the penitentiary. he officers
think they would have succeeded in cap
turing them, and recovering the horses, had
they not been more than once misled by
false information, thought to have been
given designedly. 1t was ascertained that
these same men had run off horses before
by the same route.
After several days of dry, warm weather
we have been visited by refreshing rain
this afternoon, with Indications of more.
AS the moon changes tonight, those who
believe in lunar influences have doubtless
been expecting such turn in the weather
gauge. ..