WE GO A-SPONGING 



WEEN a good compound microscope becomes 

 as common an object in our homes as is 

 a clock or a piano, we may be certain that the suc- 

 ceeding generation will grow up with a much 

 broader view of life and a far greater realisation 

 of the beauties of the natural world. To most of 

 us a glance through a microscope is almost as 

 unusual a sight as the panorama from a balloon. 

 While many of the implements of a scientist 

 arouse enthusiasm only in himself, in the case of 

 the revelations of this instrument, the average 

 person, whatever his profession, caimot fail to 

 be interested. 



Many volumes have been written on the micro- 

 scopic life of ponds and fields, and in a short essay 

 only a hint of the delights of this fascinating study 

 can be given. 



Any primer of Natural History will tell us that 

 our bath sponges are the fibrous skeletons of 

 aquatic animals which inhabit tropical seas, but 

 few people know that in the nearest pond there 

 are real sponges, growing sometimes as large as 

 one's head and which are not very dissimilar to 

 those taken from among the corals of the 

 Bahamas. We may bring home a twig covered 

 with a thick growth of this sponge; and by 



282 



