170 WONDERS OF POND LIFE. 



up on our way, is a collection of living plants that 

 bear fruit ; wliere creatures, perhaps, are crawling 

 among the branches — creatures so small as to be 

 invisible to the naked eye, but which the micro- 

 scope would reveal. 



In place of hooks, lines and baskets we bring 

 two or three wide-mouthed vials and a good dip- 

 net, for we are after smaller curiosities than bream 

 and perch, which seem to be having a kind of 

 dumb carousal in their little world as we approach 

 the shore. 



Do you notice this green scum on the surface, 

 around the edge of the pond ? Yes, you have seen 

 it a hundred times before. It looks like litter and 

 the commonest filth, does it not ? Yet, believe me, 

 this rubbish, as you might call it, is composed of 

 fresh growing plants floating or rolling about in 

 the still or slowly-running water, and getting theii' 

 nourishment from it, as other plants get their food 

 from the earth. These kinds of plants belong to a 

 family called Algce, which really means seaweed, 

 and is so named because so many species grow in 

 the ocean ; but those we see in ponds and streams 

 are so very small that the microscope is needed to 

 tell us how curiously they are put together. 



Let us now fill our vials with this " green stuff," 



