24 DIPS INTO MY AQUARIUM. 



lively inexperienced observers, I am continually hearing it 

 affirmed that writers on scientific subjects never seem to think that 

 students of nature must begin at the beginning, and that by 

 plunging all at once into the intricacies and technicalities of 

 zoology, they usually repel the enquirer, and lead him to the con- 

 viction that all natural science consists of nothing but dry facts 

 and hard names. There is perhaps some truth in such remarks, 

 but on the other hand it should be borne in mind that while it 

 may be well to try to make the alphabet of knowledge attractive, 

 yet the marvels of Nature can be fully appreciated by those 

 only who are willing to take some trouble to study them accurately 

 and systematically. 



Let us now take a dip into the aquarium and see what will 

 come up. Selecting a minute portion of the jungle-like mass of 

 water weeds, I place it in a small glass trough, or in the live-box. 

 Having fixed the one-inch objective in position, I lay the trough 

 on the stage of the microscope, and proceed to focus the lens. 

 In a moment or two all is in readiness for the inspection of my 

 visitors. And what a spectacle it is which they gaze upon ! It 

 will not be very long before all sorts of ejaculations and expres- 

 sions of amazement and delight will be uttered. AH round the 

 field, and interlacing every part of it, are microscopic water 

 weeds (Algae), while clinging to what look like thick stems and 

 silvery twigs, or darting about through the microscopic jungle, 

 are weird and wondrous creatures, which rivet the attention of the 

 observer. In these few drops of water, in which to the naked eye 

 there seemed to be almost nothing, there is now seen to exist a 

 crowded population. There is the exquisitely beautiful Bell- 

 animalcule ( Vorticella)^ the elaborately organised Rotifer, or 

 Wheel-animalcule, the Hydra, hanging on to the white root-fibre 

 of the Duckweed [Levina), with its tentacles spreading out like a 

 tuft of branches, the whole not very dissimilar in appearance to a 

 miniature palm-tree ; while here and there, flitting about with 

 extraordinary velocity, may be caught a glimpse of the slipper- 

 shaped Paramoecium, the pink-eyed Euglena, or the restless Water- 

 flea, which keeps up its incessant evolutions, like an untiring 

 acrobat. But all these wonders cannot be fully described in the 

 comparatively short space of time that my friends can give me at 



