318 THE WATER-FLEA. 



this element is in early spring, when the ice of 

 winter is hardly dissolved, and the fluid only six or 

 seven degrees above freezing, yet they become im- 

 mediately sensible of this temperature, and are ex- 

 cited to animation and the vocations of their being. 



o 



I have never observed the larvae of this creature in 

 any state. When they retire in the autumn, these 

 insects appear of an uniform size, and emerging in 

 the spring they are all apparently full grown, and 

 during the summer none of smaller dimensions 

 associate with the family parties. This plain, 

 tiny, gliding water-flea seems a very unlikely crea- 

 ture to arrest our young attentions ; but the boy 

 with his angle has not often much to engage his 

 notice ; and the social, active parties of this nimble 

 swimmer, presenting themselves at these periods of 

 vacancy, become insensibly familiar to his sight, 

 and by many of us are not observed in after life 

 without recalling former hours scenes of, perhaps, 

 less anxious days : for trifles like these, by reason 

 of some association, are often remembered, when 

 things of greater moment pass off, and leave no 

 trace upon our mind. 



July 29. We frequently notice in our evening 

 walks the murmuring passage, and are often 

 stricken by the heedless flight, of the great dorr 

 beetle (scarabceus stercorarius'), clocks *, as the 



* Multitudes of words are retained in our language derived from 

 very ancient dialects ; and possibly the name " clock," as given to 

 this beetle, conveying no meaning to our present comprehensions, 

 is a corruption of some syllable in former use. Its subterranean 



