192 NATURE STUDY. 



to death. He came out to the edge of the lily-pad and 

 watched. 



Presentl}', a very small black beetle came swimming 

 along in a great hurr\^ It was a kind of water-beetle that 

 is always in a hurr)', except when it is clinging to a twig 

 or plant, where it is not likely to be seen. It was a harm- 

 less little beetle, which was not at all to blame because the 

 bug had carried off Pike's sister ; but Pike did not care for 

 that. He was hungr5% and the beetle looked good enough 

 to eat. So he turned toward it, balanced himself with his 

 fins, gave some sharp strokes with his tail, and darted at 

 the beetle. He caught it in his jaws, and went back 

 to the lily-pad. The beetle, though small, was bigger 

 than Pike's mouth ; but Pike flattened his head and spread 

 his jaws, as bigger pickerel do, and crunched and crunch- 

 ed, until the beetle was fit to swallow. 



This was Pike's first dinner, and although the beetle 

 w-as small, it was quite enough for so little a fish, and 

 Pike, contented, stayed under his lilh^-pad and kept on 

 growing. 



The bottom of the sea near the shore and in shallow in- 

 lets can be better seen from a moderate height, as from a 

 balloon, than from the surface. It is proposed by a 

 French engineer to make nse of captive balloons to chart 

 by observation and photography dangerous waters, mak- 

 ing the observations more accurate by s,oundings. 



One of the grants of the Carnegie Institution is the sum 

 of $2,500 for investigating the flow of rocks. This work 

 has been taken up by the McGill University of Montreal. 

 Under a pressure of 120 tons, marble, limestone and even 

 granite show the phenomena of flow, though of course 

 very slowly. 



