INSECTS. 



153 



better notion than figures can convey will be obtained of 

 this feat by supposing a lad of fifteen to be imprisoned 



Oryctes maimon. 



under the great bell of St Paul's, which weighs 12,000 

 lbs., and to move it to and fro upon a smooth pavement 

 by pushing within. 



Mr Newport has given other instances of insect-power 

 equally remarkable. Having once fastened a small kind 

 of Carabus, an elegantly formed Ground Beetle, weighing 

 three and a-half grains, by a silk thread, to a piece of 

 paper, he laid a weight on the latter. At a distance of 

 ten inches from its load, the insect was able to drag after 

 it, up an inclined plane of twenty-five degrees, very nearly 

 eighty-five grains ; but when placed on a plane of five 

 degrees' inclination, it drew after it one hundred and 

 twenty-five grains, exclusive of the friction to be overcome 

 in moving its load, as though a man were to drag up a 

 hill of similar inclination a waggon weighing two tons and 

 a half, having first taken the wheels off. 



