INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 285 



seem full ; but their number was soon very much en- 

 larged by others attracted by the light. To prevent their 

 being drowned, he caused the tub to be again covered 

 with the cloth, and over it he held the light, which was 

 soon concealed by a layer of these flies, that might have 

 been taken by handfulls from the candlestick. 



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

 pared with the wonderful spectacle exhibited on the 

 banks of the 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 Ephemeras," says he, 

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

 over the bank on which I stood, are neither to be ex- 

 pressed nor conceived. When the snow falls with the 

 largest flakes, and with the least interval between them, 

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

 us was of Ephemerae. Scarcely had I remained 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 was 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, struck continually, 

 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 was no 

 pleasant office. The person who filled it had his clothes 



