times, but by some neglect in the keeper of it, it then died, and did not turn to a fly: but if it had lived, it had doubtless turned to one of those flies that some call Flies of prey, which those that walk by the rivers may, in Summer, see fasten on smaller flies, and, I think, make them their food. And 'tis observable, that as there be these Flies of Prey, which be very large; so there be others, very little, created, I think, only to feed them, and breed out of I know not what; whose life, they say, nature intended not to exceed an hour;1 and yet that life is thus made shorter by other flies, or by accident.

(1) That there are creatures "whose life nature intended not to exceed an hour," is, I believe, not so well agreed, as that there are some whose existence is determined in five or six. It is well known that the Ephemeron, that wonderful instance of the care and providence of God, lives but from six in the evening till about eleven at night; during which time it performs all the animal functions; for, in the beginning of its life, it sheds its coat; and that being done, and the poor little animal thereby rendered light and agile, it spends the rest of its short time in frisking over the waters: the female drops her eggs, which are impregnated by the male; these, being spread about, descend to the bottom by their own gravity, and are hatched by the warmth of the sun into little worms, which make themselves cases in the clay, and feed on the same without any need of parental care. Vide Ephem. Vita, translated by Dr. Tysson, from Swammerdam. See also Derham's Phys. Theol. 247.

And to the truth of the assertion, that these short-lived animals shed their coats, I myself am a witness; for, being a fishing one summer evening, at about seven o'clock, I suddenly observed my cloaths covered with a number of very small flies, of a whitish colour inclining to blue; they continued fixed while I observed those on my left arm wriggle their bodies about, till at length they disengaged themselves from their external coat, which they left, and flew away; but what greatly astonished me was, that three whisks which each of these creatures had at its tail, which were slenderer than the finest hair, and, but for their whiteness, would have been scarcely perceptible, were left as entire and unbroken as the less tender parts of the coat.

At the time when I was preparing for the press the first edition of this book, I met (in a book entitled The Art of Angling improved in all its parts, especially Fly-fishing, 12mo. Worcester, no date, by Richard Bowlker) with a relation similar to this; which the author says was communicated to him by a gentleman, an accurate observer of nature's productions; and giving credit to the assertion, I inserted it as an extract from his book; but I have since discovered that the same had been communicated to the Royal Society by Mr. Peter Collinson, a London tradesman, well known among botanists and collectors of natural curiosities, in a Letter to their secretary, which was read the 21st of January, 1744-5, and is printed in the Philosophical Transactions for the year 1746, Numb. 481, page 329.

The letter is miserably written; and, in respect of the style, so ungrammatical, and otherwise obscure, as to need such interpolations as are here inserted, to render it in any degree intelligible.

"Tis endless to tell you what the curious searchers into nature's productions have observed of these worms and flies but yet I shall tell you what Aldrovandus,' our

The author, walking by the side of the river at Winchester, May 26, 1744, was shewn the May-fly, [conjectured to be the musca tripilis mentioned in Moufet, Insect. Theatr. p. 64. and is questionless the grey drake,] which (he says) lies all the year, but [except] a few days, in the bottom or sides of the river, [we must suppose in its nymphatic state, like the cadis, straw.worm, and other species of the libella;] and rising, when mature, to the surface of the water, splits its case, and appears an animal; [a fly he must mean ;] having a slender body, and three long hairs at the tail, and four blackish veined transparent shining wings, the under much the smaller, and the upper having four black spots. He says, that having disengaged itself from its eruvia, [i. e. the case above mentioned,] of which, he adds, he saw innumerable floating on the water, the next business of this creature is flying about to find a proper place to fix on, as trees, rushes, &c.; and that having fixed, it waits for another change, which in two or three days is completed, and which he thus describes : "The first hint I received of this wonderful operation, [i. e. the second transformation,] I took from the appearance of their exuviæ [he must here mean their second exuvia hereafter mentioned] hanging on the hedges. Of these, [not the exuvia, but the flies] I collected many; and putting them into boxes, could easily discover when they were ready to put off their old cloaths, though so lately put on."

He says, he had the pleasure to shew his friends one of these creatures, that he held on his finger all the while it performed this great work; and that it was surprising to see the back part of the fly split open, and produce a new birth, [i. e. a new fly,] which left the case of the head, body, wings, legs, and even the three-haired tail [of the old one,] behind it. He adds, that after it had reposed itself awhile, it flew abroad with great briskness, to seek a mate.

After an enumeration of some particulars which I choose to omit, he says, he observed that when the females were impregnated, they left the males, and betook themselves to the river; where darting up and down, they were seen to eject a cluster of eggs, which seemed a pale bluish speck, like a small drop of milk, as they [the specks] were sinking to the bottom of the river; and that, then, [when the flies had thus ejected their eggs,] by the elasticity of their tails they sprung up, and darted down again, continuing so to do till, having exhausted their stock of eggs, together with their strength, they were able to rise no more, and became an easy prey to the fish. This is the end of the females; but of the males he says, that they never resort to the waters, but, after they have done their office, drop down, languish, and die, among the trees and bushes.

The conclusion of his letter, for I am tired of abridging it, I give in the author's own words. "They appear at six o'clock in the evening. On the 26th of May I perceived a few; but the 27th, 28th, 29th, and 30th, it was a sight very surprising and entertaining, to see the rivers teeming with innumerable pretty nimble flying animals, and almost every thing near covered with them: when I looked up, the air was full of them as high as I could discern, and seemed so thick, and always in motion; [the air he tells you, but he means the flies;] the like it seems when one looks up and sees the snow coming down. And yet this wonderful appearance, in three or four days after the last of May, totally disappeared."

(1) Ulysses Aldrovandus, a great physician and naturalist of Bologna; he wrote 120 books on several subjects, and a treatise De Piscibus, published at Franckfort, 1640.

Topsel, and others, say of the PALMER-WORM, Caterpillar: that whereas others content themselves to feed on particular herbs or leaves; (for most think, those very leaves that gave them life and shape, give them a particular feeding and nourishment, and that upon them they usually abide ;) yet he observes, that this is called a pilgrim, or palmer-worm, for his very wandering life, and various food; not contenting himself, as others do, with any one certain place for his abode, nor any certain kind of herb or flower for his feeding, but will boldly and disorderly wander up and down, and not endure to be kept to a diet, or fixed to a particular place.

Nay, the very colours of caterpillars are, as one has observed, very elegant and beautiful. I shall, for a taste of the rest, describe one of them; which I will, some time the next month, shew you feeding on a willow-tree; and you shall find him punctually to answer this very description: his lips and mouth somewhat yellow; his eyes black as jet; his forehead purple; his feet and hinder parts green; his tail two-forked and black; the whole body stained with a kind of red spots, which run along the neck and shoulder-blade, not unlike the form of St. Andrew's cross, or the letter X, made thus cross-wise, and a white line drawn down his back to his tail; all which add much beauty to his whole body. And it is to me observable, that at a fixed age this caterpillar gives over to eat, and towards Winter comes to be covered over with a strange shell or crust, called an aurelia: and so lives a kind of dead life, without eating, all the Winter. And as others of several Natural History. kinds turn to be several kinds of flies and vermin, the Spring following; so this caterpillar then turns to be a painted butterfly.

View Sir Fra.
Bacon's Exper.

728 & 90, in his

Come, come, my scholar, you see the river stops our morning walk and I will also here stop my discourse:

:

only as we sit down under this honeysuckle hedge, whilst I look a line to fit the rod that our brother Peter hath lent you, I shall, for a little confirmation of what I have said, repeat the observation of Du Bartas:

God, not contented to each kind to give
And to infuse the virtue generative,

By his wise power made many creatures breed
Of lifeless bodies, without Venus' deed,

So the Cold Humour breeds the Salamander,
Who, in effect like to her birth's commander,
With child with hundred winters, with her touch
Quencheth the fire, tho' glowing ne'er so much.
So in the fire, in buruing furnace, springs
The fly Perausta with the flaming wings :
Without the fire it díes ; in it, it joys,
Living in that which all things else destroys.
So slow Boôtes underneath him sees,

In th' icy islands, goslings hatch'd of trees;
Whose fruitful leaves, falling into the water,
Are turn'd, 'tis known, to living fowls soon after.

So rotten planks of broken ships do change
To barnacles. O transformation strange!
'Twas first a green tree; then, a broken hull;
Lately, a mushroom; now, a flying gull.

6. Day of Du Bartas.

View Gerh. Herbaland Camden.

Ven. O my good master, this morning-walk has been spent to my great pleasure and wonder: but, I pray, when shall I have your direction how to make artificial flies, like to those that the Trout loves best; and, also, how to use them?

Pisc. My honest scholar, it is now past five of the clock: we will fish till nine; and then go to breakfast. Go you to yon sycamore-tree, and hide your bottle of drink under the hollow root of it; for about that time, and in that place, we will make a brave breakfast with a piece of powdered beef, and a radish or two, that I have in my fish-bag: we shall, I warrant you, make a good, honest, wholesome, hungry breakfast. And I will then give you direction for the making and using of your flies and in the mean time, there is your rod and line; and my advice is, that you fish as you see me do, and let's try which can catch the first fish.

I will observe and practise

Ven. I thank you, master. your direction as far as I am able.

Pisc. Look you, scholar; you see I have hold of a good fish: I now see it is a Trout. I pray, put that net under him; and touch not my line, for if you do, then we break all. Well done, scholar: I thank you.

Now for another. Trust me, I have another bite. Come scholar, come lay down your rod, and help me to land this as you did the other. So now we shall be sure to have a good dish of fish for supper.

Ven. I am glad of that: but I have no fortune: sure, master, yours is a better rod and better tackling. Pisc. Nay, then, take mine; and I will fish with yours. Look you, scholar, I have another. Come, do as you did before. And now I have a bite at another. Oh me! he has broke all: there's half a line and a good hook lost. Ven. Ay, and a good Trout too.

Pisc. Nay, the Trout is not lost; for pray take notice, no man can lose what he never had.

Ven. Master, I can neither catch with the first nor second angle: I have no fortune.

Pisc. Look you, scholar, I have yet another. And now, having caught three brace of Trouts, I will tell you a short tale as we walk towards our breakfast. A scholar, a preacher I should say, that was to preach to procure the approbation of a parish that he might be their lecturer, had got from his fellow pupil the copy of a sermon that was first preached with great commendation by him that composed it: and though the borrower of it preached it, word for word, as it was at first, yet it was utterly disliked as it was preached by the second to his congregation; which the sermon-borrower complained of to the lender of it: and was thus answered: "I lent you, indeed, my fiddle, but not my fiddle-stick; for you are to know, that every one cannot make music with my words, which are