LIFE AND HER CHILDREN. 3 
into even the strongest rock ; while Others, such as 
the lion, the tiger, and the elephant, roaming < 
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 bil 
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 1 f 
living creatures arc left by the receding tide. In 
the rocky pools we find active life busily at work. 
Thousands of acorn-shells, many of them s 
larger than the head of a good-sized pin, cover the 
rocks and wave their delicate fringes in search 
Small crabs scramble along, or swim across th< 
sand-skippers dart through the water, fee 
delicate given seaweed, which in its turn is 
with minute shells not visible to the I 
yet each containing a living being. 
Wherever we go, living creatines are to I 
and even if we sail away over the 
and seek what is in its depths, th 
abundance of life, from the lai 
