78 IN THE ACADIAN LAND. 



hunting-grounds. Much food would tempt them 

 into the water, and then those best adapted 

 to swim would be, through many generations, 

 naturally preserved, and the water became their 

 home. The eyes, although two on a side, are but 

 one eye partitioned for two purposes. Now if 

 we take a pin and use it carefully we can lift up 

 the hard shining back in two plates that cover a 

 pair of delicate and sickly wings. They are what 

 is left of the stronger ones of its distant ances- 

 tors. They have suffered for lack of use. I have 

 never observed one in flight, but one may see 

 them occasionally jump in the air a few inches 

 when alarmed from below, and then the wings 

 are used. They are good divers. The eggs are 

 placed end-to-end on leaves of water plants. The 

 young are white or whitish grubs ; these when 

 full-grown make coccoons, or web nests, on the 

 under sides of leaves or twigs near the water, and 

 when their time has expired they find their way 

 out and drop into the water. One may ask, of 

 what use it is to know this story about a little 

 beetle. True there is no money in it, but there 

 is what is better than money, there is knowledge 

 of a high order. The same power that designed 

 and sustains these little creatures, also designed 

 and sustains the universe. Man is " fearfully 

 and wonderfully made, " and this little insect is 



