CHAPTER II 

 How to Begin 



IT may be asked : ' Where are these hidden 

 beauties of Nature to be found ? ' They are 

 almost everywhere. It would be more difficult to 

 point out where they are not to be found than to 

 show where they are in abundance. They can be 

 found in the fields and woods, in ponds and ditches, 

 on the mountain and plain, in the valley and the cliff, 

 at the seaside, on the surfaces and floors of all oceans, 

 seas, lakes, rivers, and streams in all parts of the 

 world hot, temperate, or cold. 



To aid our own exertions, the microscope will be 

 the great and the chief accessory, though many of the 

 objects described are visible without that instrument. 

 It will be well, however, to remove at once the belief 

 that an expensive microscope is a necessity at the 

 outset. As the wonders of the heavens and import- 

 ant discoveries therein do not always need a powerful 

 and expensive telescope for recently a gentleman, 

 using a pocket telescope, discovered a comet, which 

 now bears his name, and which was overlooked in 



observatories furnished with magnificent appliances 



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