I^i£x. JTJfK— Heron by River. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



T/{£ ANIMAL KINGDOM. 



" Go, from the creatures thy instructions take : 

 Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield ; 

 Learn from the beasts the physic of the field ; 

 Thy arts of building from the bee receive." — Pope. 



THE ANIMALCULES IN THE WATER. 



THE water in the river and little streams abounds with animal- 

 cules : not that they are diffused, as frequently supposed, 

 throughout the water, for in the clear running part there are compara- 

 tively speaking none at all ; the living creatures confine themselves 

 to the edges and bottoms of the stream, or attach themselves to 

 weeds, sticks, or stones. 



The first living creature to be noticed, which exists in consi 

 quantities at times in our waters, is the 

 Amoeba (fig. 984), an apparently shapeless 

 mass. Dr. Moxon, who has particularly 

 examined many of the animalcules which 

 dwell in the waters of my garden, remarks 

 that without muscles the amoeba contracts, 

 without nerves it feels, without a mouth it 

 swallows, and with no stomach it digests F""- 934— AmcEbK, magnified. 



its food. The way in which the amoeba encircles its prey, wraps itself 

 round it, and digests it, is certainly most remarkable ; nevertheless I 

 think we have too imperfect an acquaintance with the internal structure 

 of this creature to build up theories as to its nature and organization. 



