LIFE IN A DEOP OF WATER 159 



orcranisms. Suppose he has nipped off the growing ter- 

 minal bud of some Myriophyllum or Nitella, and, having a 

 little broken it down with the point of a needle, has placed 

 it in the animalcule-box of the instrument, with a small 

 quantity of the water in which it grew, selected from the 

 sediment of the pool-bottom. The amount of life at first 

 is bewildering ; motion is in every part of the field ; 

 hundreds and thousands of pellucid bodies are darting 

 across, making a mazy confusion of lines. Some are mere 

 immensurable points without apparent form or diameter ; 

 others are definable and of exceedingly various shapes. 

 Aggregations of little transparent pears,* clinging together 

 by their stalks so as to form balls, go revolving men-ily 

 through their waste of waters. Presently one of the pears 

 severs its connexion with the family, and sets out on a 

 voyage on its own individual responsibility ; then another 

 parts company ; and you see that there are plenty more 

 of the same sort, roving singly as well as in clusters ; 

 little tops of clear jelly with a few specks in the interior. 

 Here comes rolling by, with majestic slowness, a globe of 

 glass, with sixteen emeralds imbedded in its substance, 

 symmetrically arranged,*!' each emerald carrying a tiny 

 ruby at one end ; a most charming group. Elegant 

 forms,! resembHng fishes, or battledores, or poplar-leaves, 

 for they are of many kinds, all of a rich opaque green 

 hue, with a large transparent orange-coloured spot, wriggle 

 sluggishly by, the leaves now and then rolling themselves 

 up spirally, and progressing in a cork-screw fashion. 

 • Uvella. f Eudorina, J Evglena. 



