is a wonderful provision for the safety of an 

 insect, otherwise so conspicuous. 



There, by that stone heap, is stretched a 

 young garter snake, his gorgeous golden 

 stripes glistening in the sun. Take him up 

 gently and let us admire him. Do not shud- 

 der so when he coils about your wrist; he 

 makes a pretty living bracelet, and you know 

 well that he is perfectly harmless. His eyes 

 vie in brightness with those of any belle of 

 Middletown. 



Let us overturn this large stone on which 

 we are resting ; underneath, I am sure, is a 

 fine menagerie for our amusement. Just as I 

 hoped. The first object which strikes the eye 

 is a salamander, beautifully banded with dark 

 blue and greenish white; the fasciated sala- 

 mander so rare in New England. Not the 

 fabled salamander who 



" with her touch 

 Quenched the fire, though glowing ne'r so much." 



whose venom was more deadly than aconite 

 or hemlock ; whose saliva had " power to re- 

 move hair and substitute bald places for luxu- 

 riant tresses," and whose skin could transmute 

 quicksilver to gold, but a harmless little being 

 whose whole life is passed in just such places 

 as this. I remember seing one which had 

 been transferred from its woodland home to 

 an aquarium tank, where it lay floating like 

 a log on the surface of the water, the very 

 picture of misery. Here, too, are several 

 centipedes ; not venomous, but otherwise per- 

 fect miniature editions of their troublesome 

 tropical cousins. 



Here is an earthworm, an every day sight, 

 yet none the less amusing and instructive. 



Hear honest old Izaak Walton discourse in 

 his quaint, delightful style on worms and 

 their origin. " For worms there be very many 



