It has very powerful wings, and, with Shakespeare's witches, it
flies by night. It has two simple, and two sets of compound eyes. When
it goes below water, it carries a stock of air with it, on the
diving-bell principle; and when this is exhausted, comes to the surface,
tail uppermost, for a fresh supply. It is the most voracious of the
carnivorous water-beetles."
The last sentence is rather an unkind reflection on my good appetite,
but otherwise the Doctor spoke handsomely of me, and without envy.
And yet I am sure it could have been no matter of wonder if my compound
eyes, for instance, had been a very sore subject with a man who knew of
them, and whose one simple pair were so nearly worn out.
More than once, when I have seen the old gentleman put a green shade on
to his reading-lamp, and glasses before his eyes, I have felt inclined
to hum,--"Ah, my dear Doctor, if you could only take a cool turn in the
pond! You would want no glasses or green shades, where the light comes
tenderly subdued through water and water-weeds."
Indeed, after living, as I can, in all three--water, dry land, and
air,--I certainly prefer to be under water. Any one whose appetite is as
keen, and whose hind-legs are as powerful as mine, will understand the
delights of hunting, and being hunted, in a pond; where the light comes
down in fitful rays and reflections through the water, and gleams among
the hanging roots of the frog-bit, and the fading leaves of the
water-starwort, through the maze of which, in and out, hither and
thither, you pursue, and are pursued, in cool and skilful chase, by a
mixed company of your neighbours, who dart, and shoot, and dive, and
come and go, and any one of whom at any moment may either eat you or be
eaten by you.
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