WONDERS OF POND LIFE. 1 73 



But we will not speak to-day of other interesting 

 kinds that might be seen in this curious Algge 

 family, for there are a few odd specimens in animal 

 life in this museum, to which we must allude. A 

 drop that clings to this speck of half-decayed vege- 

 tation, taken from a bottle, must surely be rich in 

 animalcules. The live-box is a necessary imple- 

 ment to spread the drop over the slide at a uniform 

 thickness. A power of two hundred diameters is 

 quite sufficient for our present purpose. Now let 

 us place it in position, draw the curtain aside and 

 look in. Here is the Amceba, " named in honor of 

 a fabled god who could be either animal, vegetable 

 or mineral in his nature," that looks as if a small 

 portion of the white of an egg had been placed on 

 the glass, and some magician had given it the 

 power of locomotion. Such bodies as these must 

 have stretched themselves along under the waters 

 in the beginning of things. It is continually 

 changing its shape. Now rolling itself up in a 

 ball, now pushing out fingers here and there, so 

 that the whole mass is sinuated in every possible 

 design. There is something remarkable, too, in 

 the manner m which it obtains its food. It feels 

 along with its fingers until, for instance, a diatom 

 is reached, when it gradually surrounds it, and 



