THE EPHEMERIDES 



ONE of the sights of the year, worth a long walk to see, 

 is the dance of the Mayflies or Ephemerides. Visit 

 in late May or in early June some likely stream slowly 

 flowing through the meadow, such a one as Longfellow wrote 

 of excellently 



" And silver white the river gleams, 

 As if Diana in her dreams 

 Had dropped her silver bow 

 Upon the meadows low." 



It is best to go in the evening to see the living cloud 

 rising from the water. Let us indulge in the dreamer's 

 power of synchronous vision, and see the whole life the 

 long larval period of two or three years in the water, and 

 the short aerial love-dance lasting for an evening or two. 

 Long life indeed, but short love ; years of patience and 

 but a day of pleasure ; prolonged preparations, a climax, 

 and then the anti-climax of death. Biologically regarded, 

 the story of the Mayflies is simply one of the many variations 

 on the general theme of the antithesis between nutrition 

 and reproduction. 



We see the eggs developing in the water that was three 

 years ago faintly stirred by the growing life within. We 

 think of them fancifully, lapped round about by the peaceful 

 stream ; but the facts do not tally with the fancy, for the 

 trout thin them sorely. The surviving embryos become 

 more aware of things that much we may surely say. 



Awakening from their rocking, they turn themselves in 



233 



