PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 53 



the fish were every where darting, floating alive upon 

 the surface of the water. While passing the river, these 

 had probably been precipitated into it, either by the 

 wind, or by a heavy shower which had just fallen. And 

 M. Huber after the same event observed the earth 

 strewed with females that had lost their wings, all of 

 which could not form colonies a . 



Captain Haverfield, R. N. gave me an account of an 

 extraordinary appearance of ants observed by him in 

 the Medway, in the autumn of 1814, when he was first- 

 lieutenant of the Clorinde which is confirmed by the 

 following letter addressed by the surgeon of that ship, 

 now Dr. Bromley, to Mr. MacLeay : 



" In September 1814, being on the deck of the hulk 

 to the Clorinde, my attention was drawn to the water 

 by the first-lieutenant (Haverfield) observing there was 

 something black floating down with the tide. On look- 

 ing with a glass, I discovered they were insects. The 

 boat was sent, and brought a bucket full of them on 

 board ; they proved to be a large species of ant, and 

 extended from the upper part of Salt-pan reach out to- 

 wards the Great Nore, a distance of five or six miles. 

 The column appeared to be in breadth eight or ten feet, 

 and in height about six inches, which I suppose must 

 have been from their resting one upon another." Pur- 

 chas seems to have witnessed a similar phenomenon on 

 shore. " Other sorts (of ants)," says he, " there are 

 many, of which some become winged and fill the air 

 with swarms, which sometimes happens in England. On 

 Bartholomew 1613 I was in the island of Foulness on 

 our Essex shore, where were such clouds of these flying 



11 Huber, 105. 



