The wind is so piercing, and _my_ fingers are so benumbed, I can scarcely hold the brush. Moreover, continual stooping over the net makes the muscles ache unpleasantly, and suggests that each cast shall be the final one. But somehow I have made this resolution and broken it twenty times: either the cast has been unsuccessful, and one is provoked to try again, or it is so successful that, as _l’appétit vient en mangeant_, one is seduced again. Very unintelligible this would be to the passers-by, who generally cast contemptuous glances at us, when they find we are not fishing, but are only removing Nothings into a glass jar. One day an Irish labourer stopped and asked me if I were fishing for salmon. I quietly answered, “Yes.” He drew near. I continued turning over the weed, occasionally dropping an invisible thing into the water. At last, a large yellow-bellied Triton was dropped in. He begged to see it; and seeing at the same time how alive the water was with tiny animals, became curious, and asked many questions. I went on with my work; his interest and curiosity increased; his questions multiplied; he volunteered assistance; and remained beside me till I prepared to go away, when he said seriously: “Och! then, and it’s a fine thing to be able to name all God’s creatures.” Contempt had given place to reverence; and so it would be with others, could they check the first rising of scorn at what they do not understand, and patiently learn what even a roadside pond has of Nature’s wonders. FOOTNOTES: [17] _Entomostraca_ (from _entomos_, an insect, and _ostracon_, a shell) are not really insects, but belong to the same large group of animals as the lobster, the crab, or the shrimp, _i.e._ crustaceans. [18] The student will find ample information in BAIRD’S _British Entomostraca_, published by the Ray Society. [19] Compare GEGENBAUR: _Grundzüge der vergleichende Anatomie_, 1859, pp. 229 _und_ 269; also LEYDIG _über Hydatina senta_, in _Müller’s Archiv_, 1857, p. 411. [20] To avoid the equivoque of calling the parts of an animal, which are capable of independent existence, by the same term as the whole mass, we may adopt HUXLEY’S suggestion, and call all such individual parts _zöoids_, instead of animals. DUGE’S suggested _zöonites_ in the same sense.--_Sur la Conformité Organigue_, p. 13. [21] STEIN: _Der Organismus der Infusionsthiere_, 1859, pp. 36–38. [22] Zoospores, from _zoon_, an animal, and _sporos_, a seed. [23] TREMBLEY in his admirable work. _Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire d’une genre de Polypes d’eau douce_, 1744, furnished science with the fullest and most accurate account of fresh-water Polypes; but it is a mistake to suppose that he was the original discoverer of this genus: old LEUWENHOEK had been before him.