24 A SHARP LOOKOUT. 



recall the full Latin term, it seemed overwhelmingly 

 convincing and satisfying to him. It was evidently a 

 relief to know that these obscure plants of his native 

 heath had been found worthy of a learned name, and 

 that the Maine woods were not so uncivil and out- 

 landish as they might at first seem : it was a comfort 

 to him to know that he did not live beyond the reach 

 of botany. In like manner I found satisfaction in 

 knowing that my novel fish had been recognized and 

 worthily named ; the title conferred a new dignity at 

 once ; but when the learned man added that it was 

 familiarly called the " fairy shrimp," I felt a deeper 

 pleasure. Fairy-like it certainly was, in its aerial, 

 unsubstantial look, and in its delicate, down-like means 

 of locomotion ; but the large head, with its curious 

 folds, and its eyes standing out in relief, as if on the 

 heads of two pins, were gnome-like. Probably the 

 fairy wore a mask, and wanted to appear terrible to 

 human eyes. Then the creatures had sprung out of 

 the earth as by magic. I found some in a furrow in 

 a ploughed field that had encroached upon a swamp. 

 In the fall the plough had been there, and had turned 

 up only the moist earth ; now a little water was stand- 

 ing there, from which the April sunbeams had in- 

 voked these airy, fairy creatures. They belong to 

 the crustaceans, but apparently no creature has so 

 thin or impalpable a crust ; you can almost see through 

 them ; certainly you can see what they have had for 

 dinner, if they have eaten substantial food. 



All we know about the private and essential nat- 



