82 MARVELS OF POND-LIFE. 



enough to count them in some positions, the observer 

 may have to exercise a good deal of patience before 

 he is certain whether they are five or six. For a 

 long evening only five could be discerned in the 

 specimen now described, but the next night six were 

 apparent without difficulty or doubt. The hairs 

 also will not appear anything like their true length 

 or number, unless the object glass is good, and great 

 care is taken not to obscure them by a blaze of 

 ill-directed light. 



After the Floscules had been sufficiently admired 

 and put aside, for observations to be repeated on 

 future occasions, a Eotifer attracted attention by his 

 merry-andrew pranks, throwing himself in all direc- 

 tions by means of two long and extremely mobile 

 toes attached to his tail-foot. Then came a creature 

 swimming like an otter, thrusting his head about 

 on all sides, and looking much more intelligent than 

 most of his compeers of the pond. Looked at ver- 

 tically, he was somewhat slipper-shaped, the rounded 

 heel forming his head, then narrowing to a waist, 

 and expanding towards the other end, which pro- 

 jected in a fork. All round him were long cilia, 

 which were conspicuous near the head, and a fine 

 line indicated the passage from his mouth to the 

 stomach, which seemed full of granular matter. 

 Presently he took to crawling, or rather running, 

 over a thread of conferva, and then his back was 



