CHAPTER XXIV.
Water Insects.—Aquaria.
One July afternoon the boys had been fishing, and to seek some shade and coolness while eating their lunch, they had driven the yacht into a quiet pool among the reeds, which almost met over them. The water below them was very clear and still, and as it was only about two feet deep they could see the bottom quite plainly, and they soon found that it was well worth a close inspection. The pool was teeming with insect life. The surface of the water was covered with tiny whirligig beetles, which were skimming about in mazy, coruscating evolutions.
"Those whirligig beetles," said Dick, "have their eyes made with two faces—one to look down into the water, and the other to look into the sky."
"What a lot you have learnt about insects, Dick, in the course of a few months," said Frank.
Metamorphoses of Flesh-Fly.
"It is a grand study," said Dick enthusiastically; "and I have worked my best at it. When one goes hard at a thing it is astonishing how soon one picks up a lot of knowledge about it. I have read over and over again about the common insects, or those that are the most noticeable."