TENACITY OF THE FOREST FLY 37 



ing its grasp. A man takes the fly between his finger 

 and thumb, and with the other hand holds a single 

 hair of a cow or horse for it to seize, then gently pulls 

 hair and fly apart. The fly does not release his hold 

 he splits the hair, or at any rate shaves a piece off right 

 down to the fine end with his sharp, grasping claw. 

 Doubtless the human parasite will, when his time 

 comes, show an equal tenacity; he will embrace the 

 biggest and oldest oak he knows, and to pluck him 

 from his beloved soil it will be necessary to pull up 

 the tree by its roots. But this is a detail, and may be 

 left to the engineers. 



Beyond that starved, melancholy wilderness, the sight 

 of which has led me into so long a digression, one 

 comes to a point which overlooks the valley of the Exe ; 

 and here one pauses long before going down to the 

 half-hidden village by the river. Especially if it is in 

 May or June, when the oak is in its " glad light grene," 

 for that is the most vivid and beautiful of all vegetable 

 greens, and the prospect is the greenest and most soul- 

 refreshing to be found in England. The valley is all 

 wooded and the wood is all oak a continuous oak- 

 wood stretching away on the right, mile on mile, to the 

 sea. The sensation experienced at the sight of this 

 prospect is like that of the traveller in a dry desert 

 when he comes to a clear running stream and drinks 

 his fill of water and is refreshed. The river is tidal, and 

 at the full of the tide in its widest part beside the 



