284 INDIIIECT BE.N'EriTS DElllVEl> 1 HOM IMiECJS. 



But the scene round the tab was nothing to be com- 

 pared with the wonderful spectacle exhibited on tlie 

 banks of tlie river. The exclamations of his gardener 

 drew the illustrious naturalist thither : and such a sight 

 he had never witnessed, and could scarcely find words 

 to describe. " The myriads of Ephemerfe," ?ays he, 

 " which filled the air over the current of the river, and 

 over the bank on which I stood, are neitlier to be ex- 

 pressed nor conceived. When the snow falls Avith the 

 largest flakes, and wit'i tlie least interval between them, 

 the air is not so full of them as that which surrounded 

 us was of Ephemers. Scarcely had I renjaiued in one 

 place a few minutes, when the step on which I stood was 

 quite concealed with a layer of them from two to four 

 inches in depth. Near the lowest step a surface of water 

 of five or six feet dimensions every way was entirely and 

 thickly covered by them ; and what the current carried 

 off was continually replaced. Many times I Avas obliged 

 to abandon my station, not being able to bear the shower 

 of Ephemerae, which, falling with an obliquity less con- 

 stant than that of an ordinary shower, stnsck continu- 

 ally, and in a manner extremely uncomfortable, every 

 part of my face: — eyes, mouth and nostrils were filled 

 with them. To hold the flambeau on this occasion Avas 

 no pleasant office. The person who filled it had I-is 

 clothes covered in a few moments with these flies, w hich 

 came from all parts to ovcrAvhelm him. — Before ten 

 o'clock this interesting spectacle had vanished. It w as 

 renewed for some nights afterwards, but the flies were 

 never in such prodigious numbers. The fishermen allow 

 only three successive days for the great fall of the man- 

 na : but a few flies appear both before and after, their 



