14 THE LIFE OF AN INSECT. 



the shape of her boat ; after which she uncrosses 

 her legs and places them quite straight, so as to 

 shape the sides of the boat. When a sufficient 

 number of eggs have been thus glued together, 

 the number varying from two to three hundred, 

 the gnat considers her task as ended, and wings 

 her way from the pool, abandoning her ingenious 

 structure to the mercy of wind and wave, although 

 not without the security of knowing that neither 

 wind nor wave could commit serious injury upon it. 

 " In shape," write Messrs. Kirby and Spence, 

 " this little boat pretty accurately resembles a 

 London wherry, being sharper and higher, to use 

 a nautical phrase, fore and aft ; convex below and 

 concave above ; floating, moreover, constantly on 

 the keel or convex part. But this," they add, " is 

 not all ; it is, besides, a life-boat, more buoyant than 

 even Mr. Greathead's. The most violent agitation 

 of the water cannot sink it; and what is more 

 extraordinary, and a property still a desideratum 

 in our life-boats, though hollow it never becomes 

 filled with water, even though exposed to the 

 torrents that often accompany a thunder-storm. 

 To put this to the test I yesterday placed half a 

 dozen of these boats upon the surface of a tumbler 



