KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



181 



channel, it was wasted by the contending air, 

 and one-half converted into spray. Sur- 

 rounding the top grow, as it were on the 

 edge of the wall, a quantity of tall larch 

 trees, looking like sentinels into the gloom 

 beneath. Where the shale under the lime- 

 stone has given way by reason of exposure 

 to vapory spray and dropping water, large 

 nodules of ironstone are exposed, knotted 

 and twisted into fantastic shapes. This 

 rock is not so rich in fossils as many other 

 of the mountain limestones ; but here and 

 there a marine shell, as a producta, or 

 an Orthis, may be found embedded in the 

 hard rock ; thus bearing witness to changes 

 and commotions greater far than those which 

 Sank a river's bed a hundred feet ; changes 

 which converted ocean beds into mountains, 

 and cast continents of dry land beneath the 

 angry deep. — D. 



THE HORSE-DRAGON FLY. 



All, even the most superficial observers of 

 nature, must have noticed those swift-winged 

 creatures, dragon-flies, fleeting across the 

 marsh or pond — now darting like an arrow, 

 anon sitting on a sedge ; and after shaking 

 their thin wings, flying carelessly as if their 

 whole life consisted in reflecting the sunny 

 beams, and their only purpose was to 



" Show their gaily gilded trim, 

 Quick glancing to the sun." 



" No one," says Paterson, in his interesting 

 Zoology for Schools, " who looks upon any 

 of our dragon- flies hawking over a pond on 

 a bright summer day, and marks the facility 

 with which their insect prey is taken and 

 devoured, could ever suppose that these 

 swift -flying creatures had but a few weeks 

 before been inhabitants of the water. Yet 

 it is there the early stages of their life are 

 passed. The female has been observed to 

 descend the leaf or stem of an aquatic plant 

 to deposit her eggs. The 'larva, when ex- 

 cluded, is not less ferocious than the perfect 

 insect. When the time for deserting the 

 water arrives, it climbs upon the stem or 

 leaf of one of the water plants, emerges from 

 its pupa case, and, after resting until its 

 wings are expanded and dried, enters in 

 the air upon a course of the same ceaseless 

 rapacity which it had waged while in the 

 water." 



I have now a specimen of the large 

 dragon-fly before me ; it was caught in June, 

 and measures about three inches in length. 

 It has four of the prettiest gauze wings one 

 might wish to see ; they are about two 

 inches long, by about half an inch wide at the 

 broadest part. The head is about the size 

 of a large pea, fronted with a mask of gold 

 and flanked by two huge eyes resembling 



pearls in the rough, but betraying by the 

 aid of the glass some thousand bright little 

 orbs. He has six strong, bristly, black legs, 

 each terminated by a pair of hook feet. 

 Round his neck is a golden collar, and over 

 his shoulders pass bands of the same hue, 

 giving the idea of rich lace epaulets ; then a 

 broader and a fainter, and again a still 

 broader line, interposed with jetty black, 

 complete the adornment of his thoracic 

 vestment. The thorax is wonderfully small 

 for a creature of its size, being little more 

 than half an inch in length. Then follows 

 an articulated abdomen of nine joints, the 

 last being developed in the form of a little 

 forked process, giving the idea of a sting at 

 the end of a long knotted tail. Each joint 

 is ornamented by bright yellow bands. 

 Altogether as he lay writhing on the table, 

 with a pin stuck through his body, his 

 bright wings flapping wildly, his gold and 

 black marked body bending to and fro, the 

 pointed tail vainly striking about, and the 

 dull fire of his huge eyes — he gave no poor 

 representation of the dragon pierced by 

 Saint George's spear. When found, he had 

 just emerged from his pupa case, and before 

 he had ever tried those fair wings in one 

 airy flight, he was doomed to destruction, 

 to till a corner in a cabinet of Natural 

 History. 



I cannot leave our friend without quoting 

 a morsel from Professor Owen. " The 

 grand characteristic endowment of an in- 

 sect," says he, " is its wings ; every other 

 part of the organisation is modified in sub- 

 serviency to the full fruition of these instru- 

 ments of motion. 



" In no other part of the animal kingdom 

 is the organisation for flight so perfect, so apt 

 to that end, as in the class of insects. 



" The swallow cannot match the dragon- 

 fly in flight. This insect has been seen to 

 outstrip and elude its swift pursuer of the 

 feathered class ; nay, it can do more in the 

 air than any bird — it can fly backwards and 

 sidelong, to right or left, as well as for- 

 wards, and alter its course in an instant 

 without turning." — D. 



THE DAWH OF DAY. 



The strx is not yet visible in the horizon ; 

 but the shadows of night are beginning to dis- 

 perse. How many fatiguing and unhealthy plea- 

 sures do we purchase for the price of gold, when, 

 for nothing, we may every day enjoy the most 

 sublime of spectacles — that of the creation of the 

 world! In effect, night virtually deprives every 

 object of its form and color. The daylight re- 

 turns to restore both. In the garden the white 

 and yellow flowers are the first to receive their 

 coloring; the rose, red and blue, are yet invisible, 

 and do not exist to the eye. The foliage begins 

 to show its outline, but it is black. In turn the 



