A Frail Dun's Helplessness 



currents, varying in swiftness and in 

 direction, take it. Floating down over 

 a swift run, it is now in an eddy, now 

 in a swirling whirlpool. Like a little 

 piece of buoyant cork, it follows only 

 the motions of the current. Now let 

 us imagine that instead of being abso- 

 lutely free from all restraint, the in- 

 sect had tied around its delicate neck 

 a long leader, to whose other end was 

 attached a somewhat heavy line. Sup- 

 pose this line to be lying in a swifter 

 current, or in a current having a dif- 

 ferent direction from the current urging 

 on the fly. How long could the frail 

 dun keep up the natural motion given 

 to it by the eddy or whirlpool upon 

 whose moving surface it temporarily 

 found itself? The strong down-stream 

 current would seize the line, and the 

 action of the jfly would depend, not 

 upon the movements of the eddying 



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