IX. 



MARVELS 0V THE POND. 



1 There is no great and no small 

 To the Soul that maketh all ; 

 And where it cometh, all things are ; 

 And it cometh everywhere." 



F one were to be asked what creature 

 occupies about the middle position in 

 regard to size of the whole assemblage 

 of animal life, perhaps an answer would 

 be given which would somewhat surprise those who 

 had not given the matter considerable attention. A 

 cat would be thought by some to be not a very bad 

 guess ; others might venture to descend as low in the 

 scale as a mouse. But even the smallest of these 

 would be many thousand times above the mark. 

 We should probably be far more correct in taking 

 the tiny house-fly as standing midway, in respect of 

 bulk, between the huge elephant and those minute 

 animals which the microscope reveals. And yet it 

 is not a libel on mankind to say that the bulk of 

 us are absolutely ignorant of almost every creature 

 smaller than a fly. How startling to be told that, 



