THE DRAGON FLY. 199 



the times at which she does that are those that are too 

 dusky for hunting, she is very apt to be captured hy 

 the fish. Indeed, when the salmon are intent upon 

 fishing, they do not wait till the fly touches, but spring 

 up and catch it at a considerable distance ; and we 

 have observed, that when a dragon fly has been thus 

 hit in the air by a salmon, but not caught, and fallen 

 upon the surface of the water, another salmon has 

 risen at it, and borne it off in triumph. 



The bringing of so many winged insects to hover 

 over the water, either in search of food, or for the 

 depositing of their eggs, is one of the principal means 

 by which the fish of ponds and rivers, whether migrant 

 or stationary, are nourished ; for if there were no flies 

 upon the water, there would be neither salmon nor 

 trout ; and even in the vulgar view of the matter, in 

 which animals which know no law but the law of 

 nature, and never violate that unless they are com- 

 pelled, are accused of cruelty, the dragon fly suffers no 

 injustice. The whole of its own history is a tissue of 

 destructions, both when it has come into the air and 

 become a fly, and when it is in the water. Nay, such 

 is its voracity, that it slaughters prey in all the states 

 of its being, even in those states in which many insects 

 are not only abstemious, but motionless. 



The eggs which the dragon fly drops into the water, 

 fall to the bottom, and if they are not found by fishes 

 or insects, they are soon hatched in the sand ; and when 

 the larvae make their appearance, they commence their 

 depredations upon every thing smaller and weaker 

 than themselves. It is generally understood, that, all 

 insects, whatever may be the number and times of 



