30 INJUKIODS INSECTS. 



side of the Hodder. It is a wild dale, where the rounded hills arc 

 higher, but in their shape have very much of the character of chalk 

 hills intersecting each othei* — one hill running between two others. As we 

 ascended the scenery became almost savage, and the valley narrowed till 

 we began to mount the last steep ascent towards the summit level, when 

 the hills closed in still more, rising on each side to a great height. The 

 strip of a road and a little tumbling stream nearly filled up the bottom. 

 Further on the pass became so narrow that the road and the stream 

 encroached on each other, and we were in the Trough of Bolland. The hills 

 on each side of this ravine are Millstone Grit, dipping at a high angle 

 and much twisted: the whole of this district has been very much dislocated. 

 Leaving the summit of the pass, a ride of a few miles across open 

 moors brought us into Wyersdale, where on the road-side we gathered 

 more rare ferns than we had seen throughout our excursion. Another 

 hour over a desolate and uninteresting country, brought us in sight of 

 the Red Sandstone hills that rise above Lancaster, where we passed from 

 the breezy moors into a close railway carriage, and felt how hot and 

 unhealthy civilization was. 



Virlf^nnrl YnrHhire, Oct. itJi., 1855. 



INJURIOUS INSECTS. 



T^fTT?, COMMON WASP, (VESPA VULGARIS.) 



. BY J. m'iNTOSH, ESQ. 

 ^ Continued from page 141, vol. \,) 



The building materials of the Common Wasp, {Vespa vulgaris,) were 

 long a matter of conjecture to the naturalist, as well as of attraction and 

 attention to others. The indefatigable Reaumur informs us that he endea- 

 voured, for twenty years, without success, to find out the secret; he 

 however was at last rewarded for his perseverance. Wasps, like all other 

 insects which live in societies, are subjected to a well-arranged government, 

 the laws of which remain inviolable, or they could never construct a 

 dwelling so capacious and well arranged; a fabric which all the ingenuity 

 of man can never imitate nor resemble. The sagacity also of selecting a 

 proper situation for their citadel, is no less singular than the symmetry 

 and elegance of the building itself, which is composed of small bundles of 

 ligneous fibres, moistened before being used with a glutinous liquid, which 

 causes them to adhere together. These bundles of fibres are, after being 

 carried to the citadel, formed into a leaf, resembling papier mache, which 

 the insect does by walking backwards and spreading it out with her man- 

 dibles, tongue, and feet, till it is almost as thin as tissue-paper. 



