WHITEFISH OF THE LAKE OF GENEVA 



use of them to swim in fits and starts, always remaining 

 suspended. 



Zoological classification, taking into account the 

 differences in their organization, divides them into 

 different species, genera, families, even orders. They 

 make a considerable showing. Among them are found 

 the Cyclops, so called because they have only one eye, 

 in the front of their bodies, like the giants of mythology. 

 There are also the Daphnias or water-fleas, whose body 

 is sheltered beneath a large oval-shaped carapace, with 

 long conical heads, large black eyes, and powerful 

 bifurcated antennae which they use in swimming. 

 Other small creatures, too, are found among them, 

 which, though their conformation is not the same, 

 still belong to the same structural type. 



Many of these species swarm at certain times of the 

 year. Then hosts and hosts of them, sometimes dis- 

 persed, sometimes more or less gathered in shoals, 

 spread over the waters of the lake. They make one 

 think of the many swarms of midges one sees in a 

 sunbeam beneath the shade of a tree on a fine summer 

 day. Those tiny winged insects which go and come 

 and buzz around, sometimes going off by themselves, 

 sometimes gathering again and forming groups only 

 to separate once more, offer a spectacle that is always 

 changing, always moving. Held in the air by their 

 wings, they remain until death comes upon them. 

 From them we may get an excellent idea of the life 

 and behaviour of these crustaceans of the plankton. 

 Put water in the place of air, and limbs instead of 

 wings. Extinguish the sunbeam and the brightness 

 which do not befit an environment which gets darker 

 as it becomes deeper. Increase the number of these 

 suspended creatures, giving their swarms a numerical 

 importance, a mass, which the hosts of midges in the 

 air never suggest. Then you have an idea of what 

 these planktonic hosts are really like, these groups of 

 tiny swimming crustaceans, the intensity of active life 

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