210 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



At about three o'clock in the afternoon of that day, which was 

 very hot, the people of this village were surprised by a shower of 

 aphides, or smother-flies, which fell in these parts. Those that were 

 walking in the street at that juncture found themselves covered 

 with these insects, which settled also on the hedges and gardens, 

 blackening all the vegetables where they alighted. My annuals 

 were discoloured with them, and the stalks of a bed of onions 

 were quite coated over for six days after. These armies were 

 then, no doubt, in a state of emigration, and shifting their 

 quarters ; and might have come, as far as we know, from the 

 great hop-plantations of Kent or Sussex, the wind being all that 

 day in the easterly quarter. They were observed at the same 

 time in great clouds about Farnham, and all along the vale from 

 Farnham to Alton. 1 



LETTER LIV.2 



TO THE SAME. 

 DEAR SIR, 



WHEN I happen to visit a family where gold and silver fishes are 

 kept in a glass bowl, I am always pleased with the occurrence, 

 because it offers me an opportunity of observing the actions 

 and propensities of those beings with whom we can be little 

 acquainted in their natural state. Not long since I spent a 

 fortnight at the house of a friend where there was such a vivary, 

 to which I paid no small attention, taking every occasion to 

 remark what passed within it's narrow limits. It was here that 

 I first observed the manner in which fishes die. As soon as the 

 creature sickens, the head sinks lower and lower, and it stands 

 as it were on it's head ; till, getting weaker, and losing all poise, 

 the tail turns over, and at last it floats on the surface of the water 

 with it's belly uppermost. The reason why fishes, when dead, 

 swim in that manner is very obvious ; because, when the body is 

 no longer balanced by the fins of the belly, the broad muscular 

 back preponderates by it's own gravity, and turns the belly 

 uppermost, as lighter from it's being a cavity, and because it 



1 For various methods by which several insects shift their quarters, see Derham's 

 Physico-Theology. 



2 [First published in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1786 (vol. Ivi., p. 488), with 

 the date of June 12, and under the signature of V. Bennett.} 



