other scourge of the human race; and when the vivarium fails, its
contents, Anacharis and all, are tost into the nearest ditch; for
which the said young lady ought to be fined five pounds; and would
be, if Governments governed. What an 'if'.

But come; for the sun burns bright, and fishing is impossible: lie
down upon the bank, above this stop. There is a campshutting (a
boarding in English) on which you can put your elbows. Lie down on
your face, and look down through two or three feet of water clear as
air into the water forest where the great trout feed.

Here; look into this opening in the milfoil and crowfoot bed. Do you
see a grey film around that sprig? Examine it through the pocket
lens. It is a forest of glass bells, on branching stalks. They are
Vorticellae; and every one of those bells, by the ciliary current on
its rim, is scavenging the water--till a tadpole comes by and
scavenges it. How many millions of living creatures are there on
that one sprig? Look here!--a brown polype, with long waving arms--a
gigantic monster, actually a full half-inch long. He is Hydra fusca,
most famous, and earliest described (I think by Trembley). Ere we go
home I may show you perhaps Hydra viridis, with long pea-green arms;
and rosea, most beautiful in form and colour of all the strange
family. You see that lump, just where his stalk joins his bell-head?
That is a budding baby. Ignorant of the joys and cares of wedlock,
he increases by gemmation. See! here is another, with a full-sized
young one growing on his back. You may tear it off if you will--he
cares not. You may cut him into a dozen pieces, they say, and each
one will grow, as a potato does. I suppose, however, that he also
sends out of his mouth little free ova--medusoids--call them what you
will, swimming by ciliae, which afterwards, unless the water beetles