springs of the rivers, the salmon deposit their spawn among the sand and herbage of the banks, which is gradually perfected by the rays of the sun to a state of animation. The young fry spend their early days sporting amid the sunny shallows, and gradually as they gain bulk make for the ocean. The old salmon, when the important business of spawning is accomplished, also return, weak, and lean, and exhausted, to the sea, where they soon recover their strength. If any should be detained behind, they become what is called foul fish. These are lean, and sickly, and diseased, and are never fit to be used as the food of man.

Fish are said to be longer-lived than animals, but we question if the assertion be made on sufficient evidence. They are capable of being, if we may use the term, domesticated,-that is, they are kept in artificial ponds, and thrive well in this manner they become so tame as even to feed out of the hand. They would seem, likewise, to have the power of memory to a certain extent. Some soldiers, who happened to be quartered for some time in a remote and lonely part of the country, amused themselves by putting into an old and unfrequented well a large trout, which they fed regu

larly, and accustomed the fish to come at a certain hour daily and take its food from the hand. The soldiers were called away, and after fighting the battles of their country, and spending many years in foreign lands, it happened by chance that one or two of the party again passed by, and occupied for a short period their former quarters. Curiosity led them to the well, and to their astonishment, much about the usual hour of the day of their former visits, the old trout presented himself to receive his accustomed meal!

SECTION X.

INSECTS-GENERAL VIEW OF THEIR HABITS AND INSTINCTS.

WHAT a singular field for speculation does the insect world afford! In looking abroad on the universe, and thinking of vast worlds wheeling along in the immensity of space, of suns and moons, and countless myriads of revolving planets, the mind is apt to become bewildered, and droop in depression with a sense of man's insignificance; but when we take another point, and turn from man to the world of minute beings which descend in a gradual succession, even beyond the powers of the most complete microscope, all active and busy, full of enjoyment, and rejoicing in their existence, such unfounded despondency quickly dissipates, and we feel assured that we too are a

link, and an important one, in the great chain of being.*

Naturalists have discovered and described no less than forty thousand different species of insects! Indeed the whole earth teems with these animated beings; thousands of golden-winged creatures flutter in the sunbeams, and myriads unseen in the air join to form a part of the great chorus of Nature, so beautifully described by the poet,

"That indistinct and mingled hum,

Voice of the desert, never dumb."

You cannot lay yourself on the turf in a sunshiny day without being amused with the various tribes before you. Some of the smaller kind are seen creeping up the large blades of grass, to reach the top of which and return again appearing to be to them almost like a day's journey. Others are busy pluming their wings for flight. Those of the bright and shining beetle tribe open their elytra, like coats of mail, unfold their thin and silken wings underneath, and mount with a humming noise into the

*See Dr Chalmers's Astronomical Sermons.

air. Many insects again are seen busy marching to and fro, like the merchants of the city, intent upon their labours, and unmindful of every thing around them; while the wild bee booms round and round your head with a curiosity to view you close, or a noise to scare you away; but, having either satisfied the first, or found the other unavailing, it wings its flight far away, to revel on fresh flowers, or bear its sweets to the nest. The dragonfly, with broad and net-like wings, pursues its prey, hawk-like, through the air; or the grasshopper enlivens you with its chirping songs, as it takes its long leaps among the grass.

Insects have a different conformation from other animals. The first and most remarkable thing is, that they have no bones, or rather they may be said to carry their bones outside, for the rings and firm cases with which they are partially surrounded serve as points for the attachment of the muscles which act within, and perform the various motions necessary to the body.

Insects have a fluid answering to the blood of animals, and vessels to conduct it through their bodies; they have no heart, however, properly so called, but a large vessel or artery which extends