66 VIGNETTES FROM INVISIBLE LIFE. 



place them in a glass jar or vase with a few sprigs 

 of living plants, in a few hours they will be seen 

 hanging in graceful clusters, head downwards, from 

 the plants, the sides of the glass, or any other 

 object near ; and being thus grouped and extended 

 to their full length, may be seen with the naked 

 eye or with a hand-glass. In this way one may 

 form an ornamental object for the table of great 

 interest and beauty. Not all Stentors, however, 

 are thus trumpet -shaped. 



One fine spring morning I was w r alking with 

 a friend through a part of Epping Forest, when 

 we came upon a pond covered with what looked 

 like the sooty deposits of smoke with which 

 London householders are only too familiar ; and 

 the illusion was confirmed by these masses of 

 " blacks " being drifted by the wind to the sides 

 of the pond, and in ridges against any obstructing 

 substance. Observing this, my friend remarked 

 on the condition of the London atmosphere, and 

 the distance these deposits must have been car- 

 ried for the water so far out to be thus polluted. 

 I had, however, seen a similar state of things before, 

 produced by well-known animalcules ; so dipping 



