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ANIMAL LIFE ON THE 
CHAPTER XIV. 
ON THE UPPER REACHES OF THE CLYDE. 
Tr N pursuit of his study, the zoologist of the shore is 
i occasionally lured from the beach to the banks of the 
streamlet, where many curious creatures are also to be 
found to take up his attention. Some insect life he may 
there see, while the summer sun is beaming, rise from the 
depths of the stream into the air like little winged sprites. 
Some curious forms he will observe lolling in eddying 
nooks, waiting the development of a more perfect life. 
Other strange looking things he will jee, like Jack in the 
box, with their comical little heads popping in and out 
of small tubes of vegetable material, in which they are 
nestling, and rolling now and again along the bottom like 
so many little merryandrews down a sunny brae. Up the 
stream he is intuitively led with the minnows and the trouts, 
ever discovering new objects of admiration, and gaining to 
him a hitherto unknown knowledge of other creatures in 
this teeming world of ours. So far we have already 
wandered from our old paths along the sea shore, but while 
our footsteps, on this occasion, lead us inland, we may be 
none the less profited by the short digression. 
To the lover of the picturesque grandeur of Nature, few 
localities throughout the length and breadth of bonnie 
Scotland can have greater attractions than the upper 
reaches of the Clyde, where we now find ourselves. It is 
prime July, the smoke-begrimed denizens of the great city, 
yonder behind, have been let loose for the enjoyment of 
their well-earned holidays, and a number of them are here. 
Perched upon the side of the little woody eminence on the 
