GOLD AND SILTEB FISHES. 273 



Those that were walking in the street at that juncture found 

 themselves covered with these iasects, which settled also on 

 the hedges and gardens, blackening all the vegetables where 

 they alighted. My annuals were discoloured with them, and 

 the stalks of a bed of onions were quite coated over for sis 

 days after. These armies were then, no doubt, ia a state of 

 emigration, and shiftiag their quarters : and might have 

 come, as we know, from the great hop plantations of Kent or 

 Sussex, the wind being all that day in the easterly quarter. 

 They were observed, at the same time, in great clouds, 

 about Parnham, and all along the vale from Parnham to 

 Alton.* 



LETTER XCVIII. 



TO THE SAME. 



Deab Sie, — ^When I happen to visit a family where gold 

 and silver fishes are kept in a glass bowl, I am always 

 pleased with the occiffrence, because it offers me an oppor- 

 tunity of observing the actions and propensities of those 

 beings, with whom we can be little acquainted in their 

 natural state. Not long since, I spent a fortnight at the 

 house of a friend, where there was such a vivary, to which 

 I paid no small attention, taking every occasion to remark 

 what passed within its narrow limits. It was here that I 

 first observed the manner in which fishes die.f As soon as 

 the creature sickens, the head sinks lower and lower, and it 



* For various methods hy which several insects shift their quarters, see 

 Dkriiam's Physico-Theology. 



The large excrescences we often see on the trunks and branches of oaks, 

 elms, &c., are caused by insects. I had one of these excrescences sawn off, 

 and placed in my sitting-room. I was surprised one morning at finding the room 

 filled with a vast number of very small flies, and seeing some crawling out of 

 the piece of wood. On cutting it through I found an infinite number of 

 cells, some with maggots in them, and othei-s with perfectly formed flies ready 

 to emerge. — Ed. 



•f When fish have been hurt or bruised, a white matter forms over the 

 wound, which spreads, and they die as Mr. White has described. — Ed. 



