September 



Stopping upon a small bridge which crosses a 

 brook at its entrance into the river Mersey, I was 

 between two immense columns of these gnats, which 

 reached from about three to fifteen feet above the 

 water. The columns were roughly cylindrical, with 

 a diameter of two feet or thereabout, and the gnats 

 themselves about half an inch distant from one 

 another. The increased thickness of the column 

 at the centre gave it the appearance of an inner 

 denser column, which more clearly showed the 

 serpentine undulation of the whole. Every gnat's 

 head pointed in the same direction towards the 

 sun, then about to set. At one moment the whole 

 column was rigid ; the next a number of the insects 

 shot forward and then backward, always keeping 

 their heads towards the sun, the rapid movements 

 and multitudinous lines of flight leaving upon the 

 deceived eye the impression of a suddenly woven 

 black network. At the slightest breath of wind the 

 column sank like a solid thing between the banks ; 

 upon its cessation it rose again with a simultaneous 

 movement of its numberless parts. 



As interesting as the simultaneous uniformity 

 of movement were the sounds emitted by these 

 great hosts of gnats. One of them was a continuous 

 rustle as of millions of tiny straws shaken together ; 

 the other a high metallic note of a fixed and common 

 pitch if the ear may be trusted to discern pitch in 

 sounds so acute. It required little imagination to 

 elevate these two sounds which a small noise, as 



7 



