TIMES AND SEASONS. 



Canada I have seen the whole air, for a few yards 

 above the surface of a large field, completely filled 

 With fire-flies on the wing, thicker than stars on a 

 winter's night. The light is redder, more candle- 

 like, than that of our glow-worm, and, being in 

 each individual alternately emitted and concealed, 

 and each of the million tiny flames performing its 

 part in mazy aerial dance, the spectacle was 

 singularly beautiful. 



A sight in every respect similar, though doubt- 

 less dependent on a different species, occurred to 

 me in ascending the river Alabama from the Gulf 

 of Mexico. As the steamer passed booming along 

 under the shadow of night, the broad belt of 

 reeds which margined the river was thronged 

 with myriads of dancing gleams, and the air was 

 filled with what looked like thousands of shooting 

 stars. 



Beautiful, however, as these spectacles were, I 

 had not known what insects could effect in the 

 way of illumination till I visited Jamaica. There, 

 in the gorgeous night of a tropical forest, I saw 

 them in their glory. In the glades and dells that 

 open here and there from a winding mountain- 

 road cut through the tall woods, I have "delighted 

 to linger and see the magnificent gloom lighted up 

 by multitudes of fire-flies of various species, pecu- 

 liarities in whose luminosity— of colour, intensity, 

 and intermittence — enabled me to distinguish each 

 from others. I delighted to watch and study their 

 habits in these lonely spots, while the strange 

 sounds, snorings, screeches, and ringings of noc- 

 turnal reptiles and insects, already described, were 

 coming up from every part of the deep forest 

 around, imparting to the scene a character which 

 seemed as if it would suit the weird hunter of 

 German fable. 



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