10 UP AND DO WN THE BROOKS. 



if the offenders struggled they might be hurt. 

 But the dragon-fly larva's " catch-poll " disposes 

 of the offender at once. 



Woe is me ! A piping voice cleaves the air. 



" You catching fish ? " 



Verily, the nature of the small boy has not 

 changed much since Wood wrote : " At the best 

 of times the microscopic angler is sure to be beset 

 with inquisitive boys of all sizes, who cannot be- 

 lieve that any one can use a net in a pond except 

 for the purpose of catching fish, and is therefore 

 liable to have his sanity called in question, and 

 his proceedings greatly disturbed." Wood goes 

 on to give as a remedy for this evil the adminis- 

 tration to the small boy of " soft-sawder and a 

 few pence." Perhaps the California boy is not 

 so avaricious as his English cousin. At least, I 

 have usually found the first half of this prescrip- 

 tion sufficient, without the administration of the 

 second. 



Truth compels me to state, however, that some 

 of my small allies have assisted me with the not 

 improbable hope that some little fish might come 

 up with the beetles in the dredger, and that these 

 fish might become the property of the boys, who 

 are prone to have wild hopes of raising fish in 

 tin cans, albeit such schemes usually end in the 

 fish's living a few days on bread-crumbs, and then 

 expiring, to the owner's grief. 



But the small boy, when once enlisted in the 



