202 AUGUST 



lives of ceaseless treachery, carnage, and rapine. 

 The business carried on beneath the glassy surface 

 of the stream and in the shining shallows of the pond 

 is one of relentless cruelty. Tennyson, always a 

 trustworthy guide to nature, has dwelt on the 

 beauty of some water-side episodes : 



' To-day I saw the dragon-fly 

 Come from the wells where he did lie ; 

 An inner impulse rent the veil 

 Of his old husk ; from head to tail 

 Came out clear plates of sapphire mail. 

 He dried his wings : like gauze they grew, 

 Through crofts and pastures wet with dew 

 A living flash of light he flew.' 



No description could be at once more faithful and 

 more poetic ; but what bard has dared to describe 

 what went before ? Dragon-flies, unlike most insects 

 hatched under water, pass through no chrysalis or 

 pupa stage. The hideous larva creeps out of the 

 ditch where it was spawned, and is transfigured 

 straightway into the gorgeous fly ; yet by help of a 

 moderate lens even with the naked eye there can 

 be traced in the perfect insect the cruel features and 

 crawling legs of its former state. The larvae of all 

 dragon-flies (Odonata) are distinguished by a peculiar 



