A WALK THROUGH AN ENGLISH LANE. 101 



letting itself be carried down the stream for a foot or 

 two, now recovering its position with a few strokes, and 

 now scuttling aside in a desperate fuss, and hiding 

 under a stone. 



Perhaps, if we are very lucky, we may find one of 

 the "Water Spiders, and its wonderful nest, made 

 exactly on the same principle as the diving-bell. The 

 creature makes a silken bag under water, attached to 

 some plant to keep it in its place. She then comes to 

 the surface, gathers up a bubble of air, dives with it 

 into her nest, lets it loose there, and returns to the 

 surface for another supply. Each successive bubble 

 displaces an equal amount of water, and in a short 

 time the strange little architect has got a submerged 

 palace, in which she can live as safely as on land. But, 

 just now, we shall have to use our eyes very carefully 

 to see the spider in her house, for the present rage for 

 aquatic and marine vivaria has set a price on the head 

 of the water-spider, and the country is ransacked by 

 speculators to such an extent that where fifty such 

 spiders might have been found in a single stream 

 scarcely one can now be discovered. It is a cruel thing 

 to take the poor spider away from her natural home 

 and put her in an aquarium. She always dies soon ; 

 for although she may spin her wondrous house she can- 

 not find her proper food, and is sure, before long, to 

 succumb to her altered fortunes. 



If we poke away the mud at the side of the stream, 

 we shall probably come on some of the curious larvae 



