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be in the fifth generation the author of 5,904,009,000 aphides. 

 Now this is only the fifth generation, but one aphis is in a year 

 a source of twenty generations, so that it seems doubtful whether 

 all the trees in the world would hold theru ; hut do not be 

 alarmed, one poppy plant produces 32,000 seeds, one tobacco 

 plant 360,000 ; a carp lays 350,000 eggs at once, which are 

 devoured by other fishes and insects. Death is the aliment of 

 life ; these aphides are the game that nourish other insects, 

 which in time form the food of the birds we eat, then we are 

 returned to the elements and serve to nourish the grass and the 

 flowers, which in time feed other aphides, and so the mill goes 

 round. 



The water wagtails are busy wading in the shallows searching 

 for food, and flirting their tails from side to side with an air of 

 complacent satisfaction ; upon the hill-slopes are two larger birds, 

 looking not unlike wagtails in the distance, but which I know to 

 be magpies, having seen them about the same spot a few weeks 

 previous. A two hours' ramble over the moors brings me in 

 view of the most brilliant sunset I have ever witnessed in these 

 northern latitudes. The sky over Lougridge Fells appears to be 

 literally on fire, the thin horizontal red and orange lines of cloud 

 across the setting sun look like bars of red hot iron, cooling away 

 into purple as they recede, whilst the steep end of Pendle on my 

 left is smothered in a delicate pink haze. It seems as if all 

 nature rejoiced to celebrate this day of jubilee. 



"Ah! what a scene was that, and what repose, 

 And what bright splendour in the burning west ; 



The glorious sun low dropping to his rest, 

 While incense-like the soft mists gently rose 



To do her homage at the day-light's close; 

 The birds entranced and all the wind repressed." 



And then as the last long lingering rays drop down behind the 

 distant hills, the clumps of heather about my feet grow blacker 

 and blacker ; the stone walls rise up, and stand out dark and 

 grim against the fading light still lingering in the sky ; the even- 

 ing moths dart past as swiftly as if impelled from catapults, and 

 the sleepy partridges fly off with a low whirr, annoyed at being 

 disturbed at such an untimely hour, then on a sudden there 

 comes a faint shout fi'om the top of Pendle, a blaze of light and 

 a great cloud of thick black smoke, and the old beacon is once 

 more aflame ; the Weets at Barlick, the Fells of Newton and 

 Longridge, Hambledon, Castor Cliff, and several others, send 

 the story on from liill to hill ; and the unusual spectacle fills me 

 with a weird sense of wonderment, as I wander homeward 

 through the blackness of the night. 



It is now the month of August, and a hot summer's day, such 

 as I love to be out in, and as there is no breeze the sight and 



