INSECTS. 
287 
red ant and orange-fly; and occasionally crickets and 
grasshoppers are imitated. 
These are a few, and but a few, of the beautiful insects 
that sport around or upon our lovely lakes and streams ; 
the advancing heat of Spring warms them into life ; they 
burst forth, enchanting man with their beauty, and gaily 
pass a few days or hours, surrounded by innumerable 
dangers, which they seem never to heed. One kind suc- 
ceeds another as the summer advances, usually the more 
gaudy during the greatest heat, till they crowd the 
ponds, the air, the bushes with indescribable brilliancy. 
I have seen, toward evening, yellow sallies appear in 
myriads, their dead bodies literally covering the water ; 
and in the St. Lawrence rivers, dead eel-flies lie in such 
masses as to give the efiect of sea-weed. 
It is very desirable that fishermen should, for their 
own sakes as well as the sake of science, pay more atten- 
tion to the habits and peculiarities of these insects. The 
study of nature in its minute productions is wonderful ; 
the observations of individuals combined is of great 
value, and acids immensely to the general store of know- 
ledge ; something more would be efl'ected than the mere 
pleasure of taking a large mess, and the reproach of 
idleness removed from our enjoyments. To be sure, the 
men of science, by the use of ridiculous foreign names 
and the confounding of a confused and worthless system, 
have done all they can to discourage such an undertaking 
and repel such aid ; but every one can note the pecu- 
liarities that are heretofore mentioned, can even readily 
preserve a specimen and mark the times and manner of 
their appearance and the length of their duration, and 
