A TIME OF PERIL. 297 



gnat now resembles a mast in a boat, only that it 

 is continually being raised higher and higher by 

 the gradual emergence of the insect. Its wings 

 and legs are all folded closely down its sides 

 as is shown in the cut ; and it has therefore no 

 power at all to prevent its being overset by a 

 breeze, and drowned in the little waves below; 

 the lower portion of its body alone retains it in 

 this position, being as yet contained within the 

 pupa case. No ship-builder dare venture to 

 put a mast of such proportions into any of his 

 vessels, for fear of their being top-heavy, and 

 hence liable to heel over in a gale of wind. And 

 undoubtedly many gnats, particularly in windy 

 weather, are shipwrecked as soon as they emerge. 

 This is, in fact, a moment of peculiar danger to the 

 little insect-mariner, and a breath of untoward air 

 will frequently drive it about like a ship in a 

 tempestuous ocean; and if it is once laid on its side, 

 all is over with the gnat ; no patent apparatus can 

 save it ; and we have the mournful testimony of 

 Reaumur, that in stormy weather he has seen 

 a vast number of such shipwrecks in the mimic 

 ocean of a pool of water. Generally speaking, 

 the peril is only momentary, and the insect emerges 



