204 SALMONIA. 



fly fishing nation, yet our philosophical an- 

 glers have not contributed much to this 

 department of science, and what has been 

 done is principally by foreigners, amongst 

 whom Swammerdam, Reaumer, and above 

 all De Geer, are pre-eminent. To attempt 

 to collect and apply the knowledge collected 

 by these celebrated men, would carry us far 

 beyond the limits of a day's conversation, 

 and as a great proportion of the insects that 

 fly, walk, or crawl, are the food of fishes, a 

 dissertation, or discourse on this subject, 

 would be almost a general view of natural 

 history. You know that frogs, crawfish, 

 snails, earthworms, spiders, larvae of every 

 kind, millipedes, beetles, squillae, moths, 

 water flies, and land flies, are all eaten by 

 trout; and I once heard the late Sir Joseph 

 Banks say, that he found a large toad stuck 

 in the throat of a trout; but as the skin of 

 this animal is furnished with an exceedingly 

 acrid secretion, it probably had been dis- 

 gorged after being swallowed by a fish ex- 

 ceedingly hungry. But though I have found 

 most of the insect tribes, and many small 



