1889. 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 185 



Microscopical Notes. 



By CHAS. H. H. WALKER. 



Saturday, May 25th, from being dull in the early morn, held forth, 

 at a later hour, such promise of a fine day, tempered by a grateful 

 breeze, that we hastily filled two bags with sundry boxes, bottles and 

 tubes, which equipment — aided by a couple of nets, the one for insects 

 and the other for water — was calculated to meet such requirements 

 as the exigencies of the chase might call for. The Rock Ferry 

 steamer brought us to the commencement of our journey, and it was 

 but a short walk of about half-a-mile along the river wall to the New 

 Ferry. Here, on the south side of the iron pier, lies the leviathan 

 hulk of the most famous ship that ever sailed the seas — the " Great 

 Eastern" — dismantled, dull, and dirty. And this is the last of 

 Brunei's great masterpiece : after a chequered career of inutility, after 

 the performance of but one act that justifies the gratitude of two 

 nations, after having fortunes squandered upon her, to await the dis- 

 ruptive hammer on the foul mud of a river upon whose broad bosom 

 she has so often rested, the cynosure and wonder of every eye. And 

 so will she vanish from the mind of man, while other and mightier 

 structures will come and go, and, like her, leave but a memorandum 

 in the book of time. 



Decidedly this is a season for flies, and housekeepers will have to 

 do systematic battle with the bottle of cerulean hue, otherwise the 

 Musca vomitoria, alias the maggoty fly ; for here, on every roadside 

 hedge, they reign rampart. If our Lancashire entomologists bewail 

 the absence of moths, verily they shall see a plague of flies of 

 another sort. 



And here, also, mingling with the common herd, is Musca Ccesar, 

 with its shining suit of green ; and there a little ichneumon, whose 

 maternal instinct is prompting it to seek gratuitous board and lodging 

 for its — as yet — unborn young, whisking its lithe antennae about with 

 a wicked celerity that bodeth but ill for some unlucky wight of a 

 caterpillar. 



Half-past three o'clock, and here we are loitering already ! Come, 

 hurry along, if we are to reach our destination this day ! Past the 

 white turnpike, through the crowd of Saturday loungers that the 

 1 'house of call" at the corner everywhere attracts, and adown the 

 New Chester Road that stretches straight before us in an undulating 

 line. Bless us ! look at the swirling clouds of dust, and how hot, and 

 red, and foggy the cyclists look as they dash past, and disappear in 



