The Grey Flesh-Flies 



radiations capable of acting upon this lover of 

 darkness? They are certainly not the simple 

 luminous rays, for a screen of fine, heaped-up 

 earth, nearly half an inch in thickness, is per- 

 fectly opaque. Then, to alarm the grub, to 

 warn it of the over-proximity of the exterior 

 and send it to mad depths in search of isola- 

 tion, other radiations, known or unknown, 

 must be required, radiations capable of pene- 

 trating a screen against which ordinary radia- 

 tions are powerless. Who knows what vistas 

 the natural philosophy of the maggot might 

 open out to us? For lack of apparatus, I 

 confine myself to suspicions. 



To go underground to a yard's depth — and 

 farther if my tube had allowed it — is on the 

 part of the Flesh-fly's grub a vagary provoked 

 by unkind experiment : never would it bury 

 itself so low down, if left to its own wisdom. 

 A hand's-breadth thickness is quite enough, is 

 even a great deal when, after completing the 

 transformation, it has to climb back to the sur- 

 face, a laborious operation absolutely resemb- 

 ling the task of an entombed well-sinker. It 

 will have to fight against the sand that slips 

 and gradually fills up the small amount of 

 empty space obtained; it will perhaps, without 



crowbar or pickaxe, have to cut itself a gallery 



247 



