an aged Dog, who had been a faithful councillor of the former king, and a fine speech he made, setting forth that their election of the Ass had been too rash and hasty. It was not all gold that glittered. The Ass might, after all, in spite of the cross on his back be but a sham. The Lion had shown his bravery in action, but the Ass had never done one worthy exploit. And if a war should arise, it was a serious question of what avail the mere cross could be to them, if there were nothing brave behind it.

The Dog's earnest speech was not without effect. The Fox and the unfaithful councillors began to fear, and said, “What had once been resolved by the Estates must remain so." And at last, when the Dog pressed the assembly hard by the consideration of the superiority of the Lion over the Ass in action, it was agreed that, though there could be no new election, the two candidates should contend for the empire, and he who should win should be king. The day of trial was appointed, and all the beasts met; the Fox clave to the Ass, the Dog held by the Lion. The Ass let the Lion choose the form of combat. Lion spake, “Let it be he who shall spring over this brook without wetting his feet he shall have gained." And the brook was large. The Lion made a leap, and sprang clean across, easily as a bird might have flown. The Ass and the Fox thought, Well, we were not kings before either; we must venture now, lose or win. So the poor Ass leapt, and—plash there he lay, like a log, in the middle of the stream. Then the Lion came to the bank, and said, "Methinks the feet are not quite dry." But see now what luck and craft may do. When the Ass had fallen into the water, a poor little fish, crazy with affright, had run, without knowing where, into the Ass's ear. And when he had stepped out, and the beasts had laughed well at this adventure, the Fox sees him shake the fish out of his ear. 66 'Attend," he cries. "Where are

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those now who despise the cross, as if there were no virtue in it? My lord and king the Ass might have cleared the brook as well as another, but that would have been but a poor act to prove the excellence of the cross, seeing that without the cross the Lion and other animals can do it just as well as he: but as he leapt, seeing a fish in the stream, he sprang after it, and that the miracle of the cross might be the greater, he would not catch it with his feet, or in his mouth, but in his ear. Let the Lion do the same, and then let him be king." With such talk the Fox again made great commotion, and the cross was about to win. But the Dog was sore annoyed with this mischance, and the more to see Reynard, with his fox-tail, so befooling the multitude, and began to bark out vehemently that it had just so happened, and was no miracle. But that there might be no disturbance through the biting of the Dog and the Fox, it was seen good that the Ass and the Lion should go alone to a certain place, and settle the quarrel there by themselves, So they went to the foot of a hill together,

The Lion said, "On yonder side the mountain lies a mill; he who comes thither first shall have gained: wilt thou run here below, or over the hill?" The Ass says, "Run thou over the hill!" The Lion, knowing this to be the last trial, ran as fast as his bodily powers could carry him; the Ass stood still where he was, saying, "I should only be made a laughing-stock: I have no fancy for such labour-in-vain." When the Lion gets over the hill, behold! there is an ass standing beside the mill. "Eh, what?" he exclaims, thinking it to be the same: "has the foul fiend brought thee here already? Well, let us try back again to our old place." And when he comes over again, he finds the Ass on the spot where he had left him, and must now own beaten, and confess that the cross is not to be trifled with. So the Ass remained king, and his race have held dominion in the animal world unto this day.

LIFE, IN ITS LOWER FORMS.

INFUSORIA.

THIS brief sketch of the history of the Vorticella will serve to illustrate that of the whole class of Infusoria; as the facts, with slight modifications, are common to all. The round bodies resembling beads, which we mentioned as scattered in the interior of the bell, are characteristic of the whole of these animals. Professor Ehrenberg considers them to be so many stomachs, connected either with the common mouth, or with an intestinal canal which runs through the body. To this conclusion he came by prosecuting a series of curious and ingenious experiments. By mixing coloured substances, such as carmine or indigo, with the water in which the animalcules were living, he found that they readily imbibed them, and that the colouring matter was presently accumulated in these internal vesicles, which then appeared crimson or blue, according to the pigment employed. Hence he applied the name Polygastrica to the class, a term which would be as appropriate as it is significant were it quite certain that his conclusions legitimately follow from his premises. But later naturalists have doubted that these vesicles are stomachs at all, nor have they been able to discover any such common tube as the learned Professor describes. It seems more probable that the true stomach is a large cavity irregularly hollowed out of the centre of the body.

There is another curious organ found in a large number of these animals, the office of which is even more puzzling. It is commonly known as the contractile bladder. If we are

watching one of these animalcules, a Paramecium, for example, we see in a particular part of the body a circular space perfectly clear and colourless, which gradually enlarges until it takes the appearance of a distended globose bladder. When arrived at its utmost dimensions it suddenly contracts to a point, and presently begins to enlarge, until it reaches its former size and appearance, when it again contracts as before. This alternation of distentions and contractions goes on continuously; the latter taking place at regularly measured intervals, perhaps of about a minute. We feel assured, from numerous observations, that the bladder is filled by some fluid which gradually percolates into it, and that this is discharged by the periodic contraction; but what is the nature of this fluid, and what relation the process sustains to the general economy, we are ignorant.

The external organs of these animals are few and simple. Of all, except the lowest forms, the mouth is surrounded by rows of strong cilia, by the vigorous vibrations of which currents are perpetually formed in the water, which bring to the entrance of the stomach whatever particles of matter suitable for food there may be floating about. Besides these, the whole surface of the body is in many species clothed with delicate cilia, which act as paddles to row the animal rapidly along. A few of the more highly organised genera are furnished with bristles, styles, or hooks, which appear to be merely cilia more than usually developed and deprived of vibratile power. They serve as instruments of locomotion for crawling or climbing about aquatic plants. In many species we see a red speck, which is probably an organ of sight in a very rudimental condition; perhaps possessing a sensibility to the presence of light without distinct

vision.

Some of the members of the class are formed of silex, or the substance of flint.

protected by a shell

These shells may

be considered as indestructible, and they are found in a fossil state, the memorials of Infusoria which existed in former ages in multitudes that defy calculation, and almost exceed belief. There is in Bohemia a mountain composed of a substance which, from its use in the arts, has long been known by the name of polishing slate. Professor Ehrenberg has found this substance to be entirely composed of the shells of fossil Infusoria, the genera and species of which can even yet be distinguished. Of these, he computes that 41,000,000,000 are contained in every cubic inch of a stratum fourteen feet thick. On the shores of certain lakes in Sweden a fine powder is found in large quantities resembling flour in appearance. The natives of these districts have long been in the habit of collecting this, and of using it, under the name of bergmehl, or mountain-meal, as an article of food. This, also, the microscope reveals to be composed of the remains of incalculable millions of shelled Infusoria.

Some interesting examples of a protecting case of different structure are found in the family Tintinnida. They are animals allied to the Vorticella, but inhabiting a transparent tube, open at the top, of a gelatinous or membranous texture. This case is affixed to the stems of water-plants, sometimes by its base, when it is erect, at others prostrate, adhering to its side, and occasionally placed at the tip of a footstalk, like a tiny handbell turned upside down. The animalcule protrudes to a considerable distance from the margin of its glassy cell, unfolding a ciliated mouth like that described in the preceding paper; but on the least disturbance it shrinks, a little shapeless ball, down to the very bottom of its tube. Sometimes two animals dwell in the same tube, and their amicable movements are viewed with ease through the transparent walls of their miniature crystal palace.

Those who have never looked through a microscope can