46 
phibia their draco volans; crustacea, including spi- 
ders, have the means of flight in their curiously pro- 
jected webs, well known to the observers of the 
gossamer. Amongst insects the pterota are nearly 
equalled in number by the aptera. Nor is the mol- 
lusca class wholly regardless of air, as a medium of 
locomotion. 
Learn of the little nautilus to sail, 
Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale. 
Ep. III. 
The wings of the sycamore, the ash, and the 
maple; the feathers of the thistle, the dandelion, 
the epilobium, the traveller’s joy, &c. present fami- 
liar instances of vegetable volatility. 
Form, Height, and Length. 
In surveying the exterior forms of animals and 
plants, no circumstance can be so obvious to general 
tinguished by its immense fins, situated immediately behind the 
gills, which it uses as wings when it wishes to change its element. 
Those I saw flew forty or fifty yards when they met a wave, and 
plunging into the bosom of it, disappeared. A few rose over the 
crest, and apparently bathing their wings in the spray, pursued 
their flight with renovated powers. I know no object of natural 
history more interesting than a flock of stormy petterels, sporting 
amongst a shoal of flying fish, and alternating with each other’s 
element: the little bird descending into the depth of the sea, 
and becoming an inhabitant of the water; the fish ascending to 
the heights of the atmosphere, and becoming inhabitants of the 
air. It is one of those exquisitely curious and beautiful links in 
the chain of creation, by which we suppose spiritual, and we 
know corporeal beings are connected ; forming a regular and in- 
sensible gradation of existences, from the ministering angels be- 
low God’s throne to the lowest mass of organized matter.” 
