4 NATURE'S TEACHINGS. 



dropped, some part of the edge is sure to take the ground. 

 This Kedge is shown on the right hand of the illustration, and 

 the Mushroom, from which its shape was borrowed, is seen on 

 the left. 



WE now come to some more examples of the principle of 

 the Grapnel, some of which are applied to nautical, and others 

 to terrestrial objects. 



EAGLE-CLAW. FLESH-HOOK. 



The right-hand upper figure represents the " Flesh-hook," 

 used for taking boiled meat out of the caldron, so familiar to 

 us by the reference to it in Exodus xxvii. 3, and the still 

 better-known allusion to its office in 1 Samuel ii. 13, 14. In 

 the former passage, even the material, brass, which was really 

 what we now call bronze, is mentioned, and it is a curious fact 

 that all the specimens in the British Museum, from one of 

 which the drawing was taken, are made of bronze. I need 

 hardly state that the hollow handle is meant to receive a 

 wooden staff. 



On comparing this figure with that of the Eagle's foot on 

 the opposite side, the reader cannot but be struck with the 

 exact resemblance between the two. Indeed, there is very 

 little doubt that the flesh-hook was intentionally copied from 

 the foot of some bird of prey. Perhaps the Osprey would have 

 furnished even a better example than the Eagle, the claws 

 being sharper and more boldly curved, so as to hold their 

 slippery prey the better. 



ON the left hand of the next illustration is a figure of the 

 seed- vessel of the Grapple-plant of Southern Africa, drawn from 

 a specimen in my collection. The seed-vessel is several inches 

 in length, and the traveller who is caught by a single hook had 

 better wait for assistance than try to release himself. The stems 

 of the plant are so slender, and the armed seed-vessels so 



