CHAPTER III

Looking-Glass Insects


Of course the first thing to do was to make a grand survey of the
country she was going to travel through. 'It's something very
like learning geography,' thought Alice, as she stood on tiptoe in
hopes of being able to see a little further. 'Principal rivers--
there ARE none. Principal mountains--I'm on the only one, but I
don't think it's got any name. Principal towns--why, what ARE
those creatures, making honey down there? They can't be bees--
nobody ever saw bees a mile off, you know--' and for some time she
stood silent, watching one of them that was bustling about among
the flowers, poking its proboscis into them, 'just as if it was a
regular bee,' thought Alice.

However, this was anything but a regular bee: in fact it was
an elephant--as Alice soon found out, though the idea quite
took her breath away at first. 'And what enormous flowers they
must be!' was her next idea. 'Something like cottages with the
roofs taken off, and stalks put to them--and what quantities of
honey they must make! I think I'll go down and--no, I won't
JUST yet,' she went on, checking herself just as she was
beginning to run down the hill, and trying to find some excuse
for turning shy so suddenly. 'It'll never do to go down among