The Bluebottle : The Grub 



der a thin layer of sand, the grub's skin hard- 

 ens and becomes a coffin, a casket, wherein 

 the transformation-sleep is slept. A few 

 weeks later, the buried one awakes, trans- 

 figured but weak, having naught wherewith to 

 unearth herself but the throbbing hernia of 

 her open forehead. 



What the maggot denies itself it is open to 

 me to realize, should I care to know the depth 

 whence the Fly is able to mount. I place 

 fifteen Bluebottle-pupae, obtained in winter, at 

 the bottom of a wide tube closed at one end. 

 Above the pups is a perpendicular column of 

 fine, dry sand, the height of which varies in 

 different tubes. April comes and the hatching 

 begins. 



A tube with six centimetres 1 of sand, the 

 shallowest of the columns under experiment, 

 yields the best result. Of the fifteen subjects 

 interred in the pupa stage, fourteen easily 

 reach the surface when they become Flies. 

 Only one of them perishes, one who has not 

 even attempted the ascent. With twelve centi- 

 metres 2 of sand, four emerge. With twenty 

 centimetres,'' two, no more. The other Flies, 



1 2.34 inches. — Translator's Note. 

 2 4.68 inches.- -Translator's Note. 

 3 7.8 inches. — Translator's Note. 



361 



