"Why, what tool is it that you cannot find among them, Uncle Philip? It really seems as if you found almost every kind among the lower animals."
"Oh, no—no, boys. There are a great many which I cannot find; but there are several, too, which, as you know, we have discovered."
"And, Uncle Philip, we suppose that men learned to make their tools and work at many of their trades from these dumb creatures."
"Stay, boys—I never said that, because I think that it is not true. We know that in some things men did not learn from the insects, though they might have done so. There is paper, for instance. How could men learn to make it from the wasps, when it was a thins: in common use a long time before Mr. Reaumur, of whom I told you, found out how the wasp made it? So, too, with a great many tools; men invented them, and afterward, perhaps, it was found out that insects had instruments like them: and at other times the insects did show men how to make some things. I will tell you of one which I think of just now. The city of London, in England, is on the river Thames. Some time since a plan was adopted to make what is called a tunnel under the river. This tunnel is a road dug out of the earth, under the bottom of the river, across it; and of course to keep the water from pressing in the earth as fast as it was hollowed out, it was propped up by walls built on each side, with a very strong arch at the top. The work has now stopped; but about half of it was made. In building this arched road under the water, the workmen used what they called a shield, to keep the water from coming through upon them: and the gentleman who invented it, says that he first thought of it, from examining a little animal named Taret, which will bore holes in large pieces of timber under the water. This little animal has upon its head a kind of shield, by which it keeps off the force of the water, and works without being disturbed. So here was a case in which the insect taught the man."
"Uncle Philip, that gentleman was a sensible man, in the first place to watch the Taret and examine its head, and in the next place not to be too proud to learn from it. I expect he was a naturalist; was he, Uncle Philip?"
"I do not know, boys; but I should think his discovery of the shield would make him an attentive observer, if he was not so before."
"Now, Uncle Philip, will you tell us of the tweezers?"
"Very willingly, boys. This instrument or tool belongs to the moths which you see flying about at times. The tails are covered with a down, which grows in the form of a thick brush or tuft, and has a shining silky gloss, different in colour from the short hair upon the rest of the body. The moth pulls off this hair to cover its eggs, and the tweezers are used for that purpose. Here is a picture of the moths."
