CAPACITY FOR FALLING 87 



of falling, it is generally understood to mean a 

 fall downwards. But there is a curious instance 

 of the expression being inverted; it is in the case 

 of a fish which lives at a great depth in the sea, 

 and cannot live near the surface. At times, in its 

 eager pursuit of small fishes which it preys upon, 

 it rushes beyond the boundary-line of its watery 

 domain, and, owing to the construction of its air- 

 bladder, it actually falls upwards and perishes, 

 because it has no provision made to protect it from 

 falling the wrong way — upwards. 



What flight is to many active creatures, falling 

 is to others — the means of preventing injury and, 

 in many cases, saving their lives. Nature is ever 

 careful and solicitous for the well-being of living 

 things; she even has latent powers of developing 

 ways and means of preserving her creatures from 

 new dangers when they arise; not that she anti- 

 cipates — she must be touched and appealed to, 

 and then she is sure to respond. We see how 

 children in their play can fall, tumble, and roll 

 about without injury, indeed some of their 

 happiest hours are spent in such frolics; also, the 

 young of certain animals, when romping and 

 having fun, will fall and tumble about sometimes 

 in a reckless and rough way without injury. A 

 wonderful thing appears here, for this manner of 

 frolicking is observable among carnivorous but 

 not among herbivorous animals, such as the foal, 



