A SYMBOL OF LIFE. 187 



adapted by their organisation, and in which they seem destined 

 to live out their life, differs wholly and absolutely from the 

 aerial medium wherein, you tell me, they will one day rejoice. 



Do you see, on the brink of the pond, those dried-up bodies ? 

 They are those of your aquatic insects, the mortal remains of 

 Libellulites ; they have rent open their vest, as you would do a 

 garment which had become too narrow ; the rent is very con- 

 spicuous along the back ; and through the fissure issue the 

 winged and aerial resuscitated Dragon-flies, summoned to live 

 in a world differing so widely from their former one ! Under 

 the tongues were folded up the wings, and the mask that 

 puzzled you so greatly is split open on the level of the sutures, 

 so as to represent a T> wanting only a handle to reproduce one 

 of those hieroglyphics (J) which are found so frequently on 

 the Egyptian monuments, and which, according to some 

 Egyptologists, signify eternal life. 



And here, my friend and companion, we may take leave of 



" The great Dragon-fly witn gauzy wings." 



