226 THE MICROSCOPE AND ITS LESSONS. 



formation, which will both amuse^ and instruct him. But 

 beyond and above all things, let me very strongly advise 

 him never to think of investing in a microscope, however 

 humble it be, without consulting some one able to advise 

 him as to the best way to get the best return for the 

 money he may have to spend, or the probability will be 

 that he will have to begin all over again, or give it up in 

 disgust. There is a never-ending amount of be wonder- 

 ment and delight in the study of what is called " pond- 

 life ; " it is necessary to be provided with one of Baker's 

 fishing-rods a telescopic walking-stick, admirably con- 

 trived, so as to serve the purpose of a travelling com- 

 panion, and an assistant as well in getting some of the 

 objects from the water too far from the land to be reached 

 otherwise. When the stick is extended, there is attached 

 to it a ring into which a wide -mouthed bottle, which 

 accompanies the stick, as well as a hooked knife to cut 

 oif the aquatic weeds, is affixed ; and then a little world 

 may be easily caught, and the bottle detached from the 

 rod, and the contents, being secured with a screw top, 

 will create such an amount of astonishment as to be 

 believed must be witnessed. 



It is nine and twenty years ago since in this way I 

 first went a- fishing. I was advised to go to what was 

 called the " Black Sea," a pond on Wandsworth Common, 

 and I fished in hope. I knew nothing then of the names 

 or character of any of the wonderful things my eye was 

 to behold, and, being very enthusiastic, I surveyed a tiny 

 drop of the water on my return home. It was very late 

 at night, and my family had retired to rest ; but when I 

 put the smallest possible drop into the live- box and 

 perceived, for the first time, the clever and very lively 

 melicerta at work with the sensitive vorticella on its 

 long spiral stalk, its cilia revolving, or appearing to 



