MODELS OF BOATS. 305 



boat-flies ; and most appropriately are they thus named. See, 

 as they strike out regularly with their oar-shaped feet, how they 

 cut through the liquid element with their keel-like backs, their 

 flat stomachs raised uppermost to form a deck, their broad, 

 beaked heads the prow, their pointed extremities the stern."* 



One of these we may lift from the water and examine more 

 at leisure another time ; but now, let them ( ' row on," while 

 we admire another less animated, but on that account not less 

 perfect model of a boat a life-boat as it rests stationary near 

 the edge of our canal. How exactly does this object corre- 

 spond with the description given of it by a noted observer ! 

 How closely does it resemble " a London wherry, sharp and 

 high, as sailors say, fore and aft, convex below, concave 

 above, and always floating on its keel." But is it really thus 

 buoyant ? Let us test it. See, now, as we pour water from a 

 height above it, how it refuses to sink, and as it bravely floats 

 shows not a drop of water in the hollow of its deck. 



Bat of what is this tiny boat composed ? and who the 

 builder ? In lieu of horizontal planks, its sides, as we lift it 

 from the water, show an array of pyramidal bodies, small end 

 uppermost and compacted close together. Of these bodies let 

 us detach one from the mass, and see whether it will sink or 

 swim. It sinks. So it was only by their adherence and 

 their conjunct form that the whole were supported in the 

 water lighter than themselves. But this fragment of our boat, 



* See Vignette. 

 T 2 



