THE -WOXDERS OF THE SHORE. 159 



any pond. A minnow or tAvo ; an eft ; some of 

 those caddis-baits (walking tubes of straw, sticks, 

 and shells) and water-crickets, which you may 

 find under any stone ; a few of the dehcate pond- 

 snails (unless they devour your Vallisneria too 

 rapidly) ; water-beetles, of activity inconceivable ; 

 and that wondrous bug, the Notonecta, who lies 

 on his back all day, rowing about his boat- 

 shaped body, with one long pair of oars, in search 

 of animalcules, and, tlie moment the lights are 

 out, turns head over heels, rights himself, and, 

 opening a pair of handsome wings, starts to fly 

 about the dark room in company with his friend 

 the water-beetle, and (I suspect) catch flies, and 

 then slips back demurely into the water with 

 the first streak of dawn ; — these animals, their 

 Iiabits, their miraculous transformations, as the 

 caddis-baits appear at the top of the water as 

 alder-flics and sedge-flics {Plmjgancai) and the 

 water-crickets as duns and drakes {Ephemera') 

 of the most delicate beauty, might give many an 

 hour's quiet amusement to an invalid, laid on a 

 sofa, or im[)risone(l in a sick-room, and debarred 

 from reading, unless by some such means, any 

 page of tliat great green book outside, whose 

 pen is the finger of fJod, whose covers arc the 



