LIFE AND HER CHILDREN, 3 
into even the strongest rock ; while others, such as 
the lion, the tiger, and the elephant, roaming over 
Africa and India, rule a world of their own where 
man counts for very little. Even in our own thickly 
peopled country rabbits multiply by thousands in 
their burrows, and come to frolic in the dusk of 
evening when all is still. The field-mice, land and 
water rats, squirrels, weasels, and badgers, have their 
houses above and below ground, while countless in- 
sects swarm everywhere, testifying to the abundance of 
life. Not content, moreover, with filling the water 
and covering the land, this same silent power peoples 
the atmosphere, where bats, butterflies, bees, and 
winged insects of all forms, shapes, and colours, 
fight their way through the ocean of air ; while birds, 
large and small, sail among its invisible waves. 
And when by and by we reach the sea, we find 
there masses of tangled seaweed, the plants of the 
salt water, while all along the shores myriads of 
living creatures are left by the receding tide. In 
the rocky pools we find active life busily at work. 
Thousands of acorn-shells, many of them scarcely 
larger than the head of a good-sized pin, cover the 
rocks and wave their delicate fringes in search of food. 
Small crabs scramble along, or swim across the pools, 
sand-skippers dart through the water, feeding on the 
delicate green seaweed, which in its turn is covered 
with minute shells not visible to the naked eye, and 
yet each containing a living being. 
Wherever we go, living creatures are to be found, 
and even if we sail away over the deep silent ocean 
and seek what is in its depths, there again we find 
abundance of life, from the large fish and other mon- 
