OF SELBORNE. 93 



of which it is continually rising to the sur- 

 face of the water to take in fresh air. I 

 opened a big-bellied one indeed, and found 

 it full of spawn. Not that this circum- 

 stance at all invalidates the assertion that 

 they are larv(B : for the larvce of insects are 

 full of eggs, which they exclude the in- 

 stant they enter their last state. The 

 water-eft is continually climbing over the 

 brims of the vessel, within which we keep 

 it in water, and wandering away : and 

 people every Summer see numbers crawl- 

 ing out of the pools where they are 

 hatched, up the dry banks. There are 

 varieties of them, differing in colour ; and 

 some have fins up their tail and back, and 

 some have not. 



