Here and there beds of grass, thick as a carpet, covered it.

In many places icy pools sparkled in the sun.

Neither rain nor any river, increased by a sudden swelling, could supply these ponds.

They therefore naturally concluded that the marsh was fed by the infiltrations of the soil and it was really so.

It was also to be feared that during the heat miasmas would arise, which might produce fevers.
Above the aquatic plants, on the surface of the stagnant water, fluttered numbers of birds.