Marsh. 2 - i 5 



spin little silken cocoons, and change to the perfect insect 

 about a fortnight later ? I am sure it must, and I doubt 

 not that some of our country experiences have been very 

 similar to Curran's, although it is to be hoped on a slightly 

 less extensive scale, who, when he was asked by his landlady 

 how he had slept, replied to her : " By heavens, madam, 

 they were in such numbers, and seized on my carcase with 

 such ferocity, that if they had been unanimous, and all 

 pulled one way, they must have pulled me out of bed en- 

 tirely." I remember one or two very similar experiences. 

 Chaff beds ! I shudder at the thought of them, and my 



FIG. 46. THE COMMON FLEA. (Pulex imtans). 



hands unconsciously begin to wander to various parts of my 

 body, to commence the necessary labour. Not, however, that 

 there is any necessary connection, social or entomological, 

 between chaff beds and fleas unless the beds be dirty, which 

 appears to be unfortunately only too frequently the case. 



We now get over the ground pretty rapidly ! Here and 

 there, though, a three-inch plank has to be approached with 

 circumspection, or a hurdle gate in the last stage of decay 

 requires gentle usage in order to get safely from one side of 

 a dyke to the other. So far, however, we are pretty dry, for 

 we have been remarkably lucky. At last a large log by the 

 side of a pool tempts us to rest. Before we sit down, how- 

 ever, we turn it over to discover what it conceals, and as 



