350 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
The gnat proceeds from a little worm, which is usually seen 
at the bottom of standing waters. The manner in which the 
insect lays its eggs is particularly curious ; after having laid 
the proper number on the surface of the water, it surrounds 
them with a kind of unctuous matter, which prevents them 
from sinking ; but at the same time fastens them with a thread 
to the bottom, to prevent their floating away at the mercy of 
every breeze, from a place the warmth of which is proper for 
their production, to any other where the water may be too 
cold, or its enemies too numerous. Thus iheinsectsin their 
egg-state resemble a buoy, which is fixed by an anchor. 
As they come to maturity, they sink deeper, and at last, 
when they leave their eggs as worms, they creep at the bot- 
tom. They now make themselves lodgments of cement, 
which they fasten to some solid body at the very bottom of 
the water, unless by accident, they meet a piece of chalk, 
which, being of a soft and pliant nature, gives them an op- 
portunity of sinking a retreat for themselves, where nothing 
but the claws of a cray fish can possibly molest them. The 
worm afterwards changes its form, it appears with a large 
head, and a tail invested with hair, and moistened with an 
oleaginous liquor, which she makes use of as a cork, to sus- 
tain her head in the air, and her tail in the water, and to 
transport her from one place to another. When the oil with 
which her tail is moistened begins to grow dry, she discharges 
out of her mouth an unctuous humour which she sheds all 
over her tail, by virtue whereof she is enabled to transport 
herself where she pleases, without being either wet, or any 
wise incommoded by the water. 
The gnat in her second state is, properly speaking, in the 
form of a nymph, which is an introduction or entrance into 
a new life. In the first place she divests herself of her second 
skin ; in the next she resigns her eyes, her antenme, and her 
tail ; in short, she actually seems to expire. However, from 
thespoils ofthe amphibious animal, alittle winged insect cuts 
the air, whose every part is active to the last degree, and 
whose whole structure is the just object of our admiration. 
Its little head is adorned with a plume of feathers, and its 
whole body invested with scales and hair, to secure it from 
any wet or dust. She makes trial of the activity of her wings* 
by rubbing them either against her body, or her broad side- 
bags, which keep her in an equilibrium. The furbelow, o' - 
little border of fine feathers which graces her wings, is very 
curious, and strikes the eye iu the most agreeable manner. 
There is nothing, however, of greater importance to the gnat 
than her trunk, and that weak implement may justly be 
deemed one of Nature's master-pieces. It is so very small* 
