POND-LIFE. 233 



they know how to preserve a little volume of warm air 

 around them, which has the same effect in keeping them 

 alive. And when they have converted the dead and de- 

 composing particles of matter which they find in the 

 element in which they live into their own living tissues 

 by that mysterious process we call " assimilation," they 

 themselves become food for larger infusoria and of 

 numerous other small animals, which in their turn are 

 devoured by larger animals, and thus a food fit for the 

 nourishment of the highest organized beings is brought 

 together by a short route, from the extremity of the 

 realms of organized matter. 



Pond-life ! No branch of microscopical work can be 

 better studied, as an evidence of the wisdom of (rod dis- 

 played in creation, than the forms and movements of the 

 minute inhabitants of stagnant waters or streams. Their 

 organs of locomotion are astonishing; they appear to 

 move about at their own free will, without the interference 

 of anything else, and they hold on to an object with what 

 appears to be voluntary adhesion ; and their mode of 

 reproduction, too, is most curious, for in some species it 

 is by division, while in others it is by budding. All day 

 and all night these active little " scavengers " are busy 

 employing their short lives in clearing the water from 

 offensive matter, and they appear to enjoy their existence, 

 brief though it be. How many thousands may be found 

 in a drop of water not larger than a pin's head it is not 

 safe to r peat, but they are simply countless. 



May we not conclude these very brief remarks on 

 pond-liie with a reference to the best of authors in the 

 best of books ? " These wait all upon Thee ; that Thou 

 mayest give them their meat in due season. That thou 

 givest them they gather : Thou openest Thine hand, they 

 are filled with good. . . . Thou takest away their breath. 



