THE GLOWWORM* 305 



quired by the female when she deposits her eggs, 

 are the efforts of much strength. The employ of 

 the dorr, again, is to mine holes in the soil, remove 

 the earth, and secrete the nuisances and incum- 

 brances that may be found upon the surface ; and 

 this no weak animal could accomplish : but the 

 strength of this beetle almost exceeds credibility. 

 It has little power as a draught animal, but his bu- 

 siness is to heave up the earth, entombing matters, 

 and his muscular means appear to be situated in 

 his legs, the upper joint of which is very large and 

 firm. Having repeatedly placed one of these crea- 

 tures, weighing 15 grains, under a weight equal to 

 4796 grains, sufficient, it would be considered, to 

 crush its body, 319 times its own weight ! it heaved 

 it up and withdrew, and the same pressure, being 

 placed on its leg, was immediately disengaged by 

 the powers of the other. Man effects his objects 

 by the reasonings of his mind, mechanical agencies, 

 or the strength of others : had he depended upon, 

 mere animal power to accomplish his wishes, in 

 order to equal the means of a common beetle, he 

 must have raised his body from an incumbent pres- 

 sure of perhaps 20 tons ! Our glowworm requires 

 all its faculties, retiring in autumn into the crevices 

 of a stony or earthy soil, where it passes its inani- 

 mate hours : before the spring arrives, all these pas- 

 sages by which it entered would probably be 

 closed by the decomposition of the one or moulder- 

 ing of the other, through the agency of frosts 

 and rains ; and it is thus probably endowed with 



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