ves;
they embalm their offensive enemy, by covering him over with propolis;
both Maraldi and Reaumur have seen this. The latter observed that a
snail had entered a hive, and fixed itself to the glass side, just as
it does against walls, until the rain shall invite it to thrust out its
head beyond its shell. The bees, it seemed, did not like the interloper,
and not being able to penetrate the shell with their sting, took a
hint from the snail itself, and instead of covering it all over with
propolis, the cunning economists fixed it immovably, by cementing merely
the edge of the orifice of the shell to the glass with this resin, and
thus it became a prisoner for life, for rain cannot dissolve this
cement, as it does that which the insect itself uses.[5]--_Ibid_.

[5] For a notice of the application of this cement to useful
purposes, see No. 396, page 283.--ED. MIRROR.

It furnishes a subject of serious consideration, as well as an argument
for a special providence, to know, that the accurate Reaumur, and other
naturalists, have observed, that when any kind of insect has increased
inordinately, their natural enemies have increased in the same
proportion, and thus preserved the balance.--_Ibid_.

_Gnats_.

There are few insects with whose form we are better acquainted than
that of the gnat. It is to be found in all latitudes and climates; as
prolific in the Polar as in the Equatorial regions. In 1736 they were so
numerous, and were seen to rise in such clouds from Salisbury cathedral,
that they looked like columns of smoke, and frightened the people, who
thought the building was on fire. In 1766, they appeared at Oxford, in
the form of a thick black cloud; six columns were observed to ascend the
height of fifty or sixty feet. Their bite was attended with alarming
inflammation. To some appearances of this kind our great poet, Spenser,
alludes, in the following beautiful simile:--

As when a swarm of gnats at eventide,
Out of the fennes of Allan doe arise,
Their murmurring small trumpets sownden wide,
Whiles in the air their clust'ring army flies.
That as a cloud doth seem to dim the skies:
Ne man nor beast may rest or take repast,
For their sharp wounds and noyous injuries,
Till the fierce northern wind, with blustering blast,
Doth blow them quite away, and in the ocean cast.

In Lapland, their numbers have been compared to a flight of snow when
the flakes fall thickest, and t