NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
171 
yards ; the length of the lapse or slip as seen from the fields below, one 
hundred and eighty-one ; and a partial fall, concealed in the coppice, 
extends seventy yards more ; so that the total length of this fragment 
that fell was two hundred and fifty- one yards. About fifty acres of 
land suffered from this violent convulsion ; two houses were entirely 
destroyed ; one end of a new barn was left in ruins, the walls being 
cracked through the very stones that composed them ; a hanging 
coppice was changed to a naked rock ; and some grass grounds and an 
arable field so broken and rifted by the chasms as to be rendered for a 
time neither fit for the plough or safe for pasturage, till considerable 
labour and expense had been bestowed in levelling the surface and 
filling in the gaping fissures. 
LETTEE XLVL 
TO THE SAME. 
" resonant arbusta ." 
Selborne. 
There is a steep abrupt pasture field and interspersed with furze 
close to the back of this village, well known by the name of Short Lithe, 
consisting of a rocky dry soil, and inclining to the afternoon sun. This 
spot abounds with the gryllus campestris, or field-cricket ; which, 
though frequent in these parts, is by no means a common insect in 
many other counties. 
As their cheerful summer cry cannot but draw the attention of a 
naturalist, I have often gone down to examine the economy of these 
grylli, and study their mode of life ; but they are so shy and cautious 
that it is no easy matter to get a sight of them ; for feeling a person's 
footsteps as he advances, they stop short in the midst of their song, and 
retire backward nimbly into their burrows, where they lurk till all 
suspicion of danger is over. 
At first we attempted to dig them out with a spade, but without any 
great success ; for either we could not get to the bottom of the hole, 
which often terminated under a great stone ; or else in breaking up the 
ground we inadvertently squeezed the poor insect to death. Out of 
one so bruised we took a multitude of eggs, which were long and 
narrow, of a yellow colour, and covered with a very tough skin. By 
this accident we learned to distinguish the male from the female ; the 
former of which is shining black, with a golden stripe across his 
shoulders ; the latter is more dusky, more capacious about the abdomen, 
and carries a long sword-shaped weapon at her tail, which probably is 
the instrument with which she deposits her eggs in crannies and safe 
receptacles. 
Where violent methods will not avail, more gentle means will often 
succeed, and so it proved in the present case ; for, though a spade be 
too boisterous and rough an implement, a pliant stalk of grass, gently 
insinuated into the caverns, will probe their windings to the bottom, 
and quickly bring out the inhabitant ; and thus the humane inquirer 
