1782. NORFOLK. 487 



were feen in this neighbourhood ; and where 122. 

 the obfervations made this year ftrongly JJf^jJl 

 corroborate the idea of their being brought riLLARS - 

 acrofs the fea during a continuance of north- 

 ed wind. 



Mr. Howfe, of Overftrand, (who lives near 

 the beach, and who is a man of good credit) 

 declares, he faw them arrive " in clouds, fo 

 " as to darken the air ;" and the filhermen of 

 Beck-hithe have made the fame affertion : 

 while, from the reports of fcveral perfons 

 who live upon the coaft, they were feen in 

 fuch numbers upon the cliffs, and in the ad- 

 joining grounds, that, being apparently fpent 

 with their flight, they might have been "taken 

 u up by fhovel-fulls*." Even in the above- 

 mentioned foot-path piece at South-Reps, 

 three miles from the fea, they were defcribed as 

 refembling " flights of bees." 



The 28th July, I walked over this piece 

 with Mr. John Baker, its proprietor. In about 



* Afterward, hearing a pcrfon (unknown) relating this 

 circuiuftance, I aflccd him particularly as to the thicknefs 

 the flies might lie upon the ground; he faid, in foire places 

 he believed they lay two inches thick ; adding, that they 

 alight have been raked up into heaps of ahr.oit any fize. 

 Perhaps, had fire been put to them in this critical ftate 

 (which perhaps was not altogether a ftate of reft but of 

 copulation), number^ might have been deftroyed. 



ten 



