CHAPTER II 

 SUBAQUEOUS HAPPENINGS IN NATURE 



OF THE DROWNING OF DUNS AND OTHER INSECTS. 



It has been advanced as an argument against the 

 use of the wet fly, that duns and the other small 

 insects which drift down upon the surface of a 

 stream are never seen by the fish under water, 

 and that a wet fly is therefore an unnatural object, 

 especially if winged. '* Never " is a big word, 

 and I venture to think the case is overstated. I 

 have watched an eddy with little swirling whirl- 

 pools in it for an hour together, and again and 

 again I have seen little groups of flies caught in one 

 or other of the whirls, sucked under and thrown 

 scatterwise through the water, to drift some 

 distance before again reaching the surface. 



Anyone who has kept water-insects in formalin 

 for observation or mounting is aware that they 

 readily become water-logged, and by no means 

 insist on floating. Again, we have it on the best 

 authority that certain of the spinners descend to 

 the river-bed to lay their eggs, and probably, that 



function performed, they ascend again through 



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