8 Mr. R. Patterson on the appearance of Clouds of Dipt era. 



evening of the 11th, and by another on the evening of the 13th, 

 it was mistaken for the sound of something boiling, and one 

 of them hastened from the hall door into the house to see 

 that her servant was not neglecting some culinary matter 

 then in progress. At Colin Glen, about four miles west of 

 Belfast, they were observed on the 12th. On the evening of 

 the 11th, the person who has the care of the Friar's-bush 

 burial-ground, adjoining the Botanic Garden, thought the 

 dark smoky-looking columns which he saw were caused by 

 something being burned in the garden, and ascended the 

 highest part of the ground to ascertain if such were the case. 

 1 observed the insects on the evenings of the 10th, 1 1th, 12th, 

 13th and 14th; but on communicating these particulars to 

 my friend Mr. Thompson, I was gratified by finding that 

 they had attracted his notice above the trees in front of his 

 residence on the 9th ;' and he has obligingly placed at my 

 disposal the following note respecting them : — 



" Belfast, June 9, 1842. — When returning from the Botanic Gar- 

 den to town this evening at eight o'clock, and about a quarter of a 

 mile from Donegal Square, my attention was arrested by what ap- 

 peared to be several narrow columns of black smoke rising into the 

 air above the trees to a great height - ' like the mast of some tall 

 ammiral.' — Looking upon them as smoke, I could not understand 

 why a portion of one should occasionally vibrate, or as it were, break 

 down, until it would touch a neighbouring column to the east of it, 

 while another would play a similar part towards a column on the 

 west. The whole appearance seemed to indicate an extraordinary 

 state of the atmosphere, though I could not conceive the gentlest 

 zephyrs blowing different ways so near each other and about the 

 same time. On approaching nearer, however, the phenomenon was 

 explained, and proved to arise from columns of a large species of 

 midge instead of smoke. The trees along the west side of the square 

 are deciduous and chiefly elms (Ulmus montana), about forty- five feet 

 in height, forming a continuous row, and the summit of almost every 

 tree (for" there evidently was no favouritism as to species) seemed 

 to be emitting smoke — sometimes in two or three distinct columns. 

 The insects presented themselves in masses of every form, the most 

 remarkable of which was still the tall mast-like column. One cloud 

 of them appeared above the middle of the spacious street, where 

 numbers of persons were now assembled gazing and wondering at 

 the singular spectacle. There were as usual several swifts (Cypselus 

 apus) flying about the Square, and I particularly remarked, that al- 

 though they occasionally passed very near the masses of insects, 

 they never once swept througli any congregated party of them. For 

 some time past the weather has been remarkably fine, dry and warm, 

 as was this day. 



" My brother, as I afterwards learned , remarked the same appear- 

 ance this evening above the trees at the Grove, a mile distant from 



