12 UP AND DOWN THE BROOKS. 



such frog appears, and they run on farther up the 

 creek to continue their search. 



Here and there, on the leaves or chips that 

 float in the water, or on the grasses that hang 

 into the stream, one finds clear, yellowish jelly 

 drops, as big as dew-drops, or perhaps larger. 

 To those who have kept these drops and seen 

 their final outcome, they are known as the eggs 

 of the common pond-snail. Dear to my memory 

 is the first little pond-snail that ever hatched in 

 my own bottle of snail-eggs. How eagerly from 

 day to day I had gazed into the depths of the 

 water in my bottle, hoping amid the grains of 

 sand and specks of leaves to see some move- 

 ment indicating life, and how rapturously, on the 

 twenty-sixth day of my search, did I see through 

 my microscope the motion of a little thing about 

 half as big as a pin-head. The speck grew, and 

 behold, it had a wonderful little shell, and, at 

 last, one day I attained the height of my ambi- 

 tion in snail-culture, for I scraped the clinging 

 sand from the minute object, and there was re- 

 vealed to my admiring gaze the baby snail, the 

 little black whorls of its tiny shell as perfect as 

 those of the biggest of the family. 



There are three kinds of snails that I have 

 found in this brook; the "left-hand," the flat, 

 and the " right - hand " snails. They all have 

 the same meek, quiet nature. In regard to their 

 appellations, if you hold the shell of one of these 



