396 MODELS OF BOATS. 



laughed incredulously on being told that he was using the same 

 sort of agency to rend, perhaps an oak, as that employed by a 

 bee beside him to effect its entrance or egress through the 

 closed door of a blossom of a toad-flax or snapdragon. The 

 insect, in accomplishment of this purpose, rests on the lower 

 lip of the flower, insinuates its tongue between the upper lip 

 and the valve, and then thrusting in its head, acts with it as a 

 wedge to force the shut edges asunder. 1 



Let us begin by a survey of what we shall denominate our 

 hall. Around it flows an artificial canal, on the surface of 

 which, stationary or in movement, we see a variety of what 

 look, at a little distance, like diminutive model boats. These 

 living boats, of which the like may be seen gliding in summer 

 on the surface of every pond, are, in short, none other than 

 boat-flies ; and most appropriately are they thus named. See, 

 as they strike out regularly with their oar-shaped feet, how they 

 cut through the liquid element, with their keel-like backs, their 

 flat stomachs raised uppermost to form a deck, their broad, 

 beaked heads the prow, their pointed extremities the stern. 2 



But of what is this tiny boat composed ? and who the builder ? 

 In lieu of horizontal planks, its sides, as we lift it from the 

 water, show an array of pyramidal bodies, small end uppermost 

 and compacted close together. These are the eggs of the gnat. 

 Well, here, beside the edge of our canal, moored to an aquatic 

 plant by some silken cables, we perceive, submerged all but 

 the top, a bell or dome not very dissimilar in size and shape to 

 the half of a pigeon's egg. Like that, and like a diving-bell, it 

 is open at the bottom. 



To give you on this point entire satisfaction, we will raise 

 from the water and reverse our diver's habitation, even at the 

 risk of disturbing its occupant, who has been also, we must tell 

 you, its ingenious constructor. There, the bell is uplifted, 

 and we see him sitting within it, head downwards a somewhat 

 strange position ; but it seems we have fairly routed him. He 

 1 See " Insect Miscellanies." 2 See Vignette. 



