390 THE LIFE OF AN INSECT. 



only as large as a grain of sand;, which ran three 

 inches in half a second, and in that space made the 

 enormous number of Jive hundred and forty steps. 

 If a man were to be able to walk as fast in pro- 

 portion to his size, supposing his step to measure 

 two feet, he would, in the course of a minute, 

 have run upwards of ticenty miles, a task far sur- 

 passing our express railroad engines, or the famous 

 Seven League Boots recorded in the nursery 

 fable. In leaping, also, insects far excel man, 

 or any other animal whatever. The flea can leap 

 two hundred times its own length ; so also can 

 the locust. If a man were six feet long, and could 

 leap as high and as far as one of these insects, he 

 might stand near Bow Church in Cheapside, leap 

 up into the air over the top of St. Paul's cross 

 and alight at the bottom of Ludgate Hill ; which 

 would be something more wonderful than it has 

 ever entered into the minds of the writers of fairy 

 tales to conceive of. The insect called the frog- 

 hopper can leap more than two hundred and 

 fifty times its own length. Some spiders can leap 

 a couple of feet upon their prey. The legs of 

 insects that swim are generally peculiarly fitted 

 for it, either by their being expanded somewhat 



