GRfc.Y DRAKE. 35 



and die under the trees and bushes. I observed 

 that the females were most numerous, which 

 was very necessary, considering the many ene- 

 mies they have, during the short time of their 

 appearance, for both birds and fish are very fond 

 of them, and no doubt under the water they are 

 food for small aquatic insects. What is further 

 remarkable in this surprising creature is, that in 

 a life of a few days it eats nothing, seems to 

 have no apparatus for that purpose, but brings 

 up with it out of the water, sufficient support 

 to enable it to shed its skin, and to perform the 

 principal end of life with great vivacity. The 

 particular time when I observed them very 

 numerous and sportive, was on the 6th of 

 May, at six o'clock in the evening. It was a 

 sight very surprising and entertaining, to see 

 the rivers teaming with innumerable, pretty, 

 nimble, flying insects, and almost every thing 

 near covered with them. When I looked up 

 into the air it was full of them, as high as I 

 could discern, and being so thick, and always 

 in motion, they made almost such an appear- 

 ance as when one looks up, and sees the snow 

 coming down : and yet this wonderful appear- 

 ance in three or four days after the last of May, 

 totally disappeared *." 



Found on every hawthorn bush when the leaves 

 come forth, It is used for dibbing, in some 

 rivers, for trouts. 



* That there should be a tribe of flies, whose duration ex- 

 tends but to a day, seems at first surprising ; but the wonder 

 will increase, when we are told that some of this kind seem to 

 be born and die in the space of a i ingle hour. 



