OMNIPRESENCE OF LIFE 1287 



small that one hundred and fifty millions of them 

 would not weigh a grain, to the whale, so large 

 that it seems an island as it sleeps upon the waves. 

 The bed of the seas is alive with polypes, crabs, star- 

 fishes, and with sand-numerous shell-animalcules. 

 The rugged face of rocks is scarred by the silent 

 boring of soft creatures, and blackened with count- 

 less mussels, barnacles, and limpets. 



Life everywhere! on the earth, in the earth, crawl- 

 ing, creeping, burrowing, boring, leaping, running. 

 If the sequestered coolness of the wood tempt us to 

 saunter into its checkered shade, we are saluted by 

 the murmurous din of insects, the twitter of birds, 

 the scrambling of squirrels, the startled rush of un- 

 seen beasts, all telling how populous is this seeming 

 solitude. If we pause before a tree, or shrub, or 

 plant, our cursory and half-abstracted glance detects 

 a colony of various inhabitants. We pluck a flower, 

 and in its bosom we see many a charming insect busy 

 at its appointed labor. We pick up a fallen leaf, 

 and if nothing is visible on it, there is probably the 

 trace of an insect larva hidden in its tissue, and 

 awaiting there development. The drop of dew upon 

 this leaf will probably contain its animals, visible 

 under the microscope. This same microscope re- 

 veals that the blood-rain suddenly appearing on 

 bread, and awakening superstitious terrors, is nothing 

 but a collection of minute animals (Monas pro : 

 digiosa) ; and that the vast tracts of snow which are 

 reddened in a single night owe their color to the 

 marvelous rapidity in reproduction of a minute 

 plant (Protococcus nivalis) . The very mould which 



