Marvels of Pond-Life. 15 



shall have by-and-bye to speak of some of the members 

 of this artificial and unsatisfactory group, and postpone 

 to that time a learned disquisition on the difference 

 between animals and plants, a difference observable 

 enough if we compare a hippopotamus with a cabbage, 

 but which "grows small by degrees, and beautifully 

 less," as we contemplate lower forms. 



After the Phytozoa come the Protozoa, or first forms 

 in which animality is distinctly recognised. Under this 

 term are assembled creatures of very various organiza- 

 tion, from the extreme simplicity of the Proteus or 

 Amoeba, a little lump of jelly, that moves by thrusting 

 out portions of its body, so as to make a sort of ex- 

 tempore legs, and in which no organs can be discerned,* 

 up to others that are highly developed, like our Vorti- 

 cellce. This group is evidently provisional, and jumbles 

 together objects that may be widely separated when 

 their true structure and real affinities are discerned. 



Following the Protozoa, come the Rotifer a, or Wheel- 

 bearers, of which we have obtained an example from 

 our pond, and whose characteristics we shall endeavour 

 to delineate when our specimen is under view ; and last 

 in the list we have the Tardigrada, " Slow -steppers," or 

 Water Bears, queer little creatures, something like new- 

 born puppies, with a double allowance of imperfect feet. 

 These, though somewhat connected with the rotifers, 

 are considered to belong to a low division of the arach- 

 nida (spiders, &c). 



Feeling that we must be merciful with the long-tailed 



* In some kinds and in some stages of growth this is not strictly 

 true. 



