and
suffered from this violent convulsion; two houses were entirely
destroyed; one end of a new barn was left in ruins, the walls being
cracked through the very stones that composed them; a hanging coppice was
changed to a naked rock; and some grass grounds and an arable field so
broken and rifted by the chasms as to be rendered for a time neither fit
for the plough nor safe for pasturage, till considerable labour and
expense had been bestowed in levelling the surface and filling in the
gaping fissures.

LETTER XLVI.

" . . . resonant arbusta . . . "

SELBORNE.

There is a steep abrupt pasture field and interspersed with furze close
to the back of this village, well known by the name of Short Lithe,
consisting of a rocky dry soil, and inclining to the afternoon sun. This
spot abounds with the _gryllus campestris_, or field-cricket; which,
though frequent in these parts, is by no means a common insect in many
other counties.

As their cheerful summer cry cannot but draw the attention of a
naturalist, I have often gone down to examine the economy of these
_grylli_, and study their mode of life; but they are so shy and cautious
that it is no easy matter to get a sight of them; for feeling a person's
footsteps as he advances, they stop short in the midst of their song, and
retire backward nimbly into their burrows, where they lurk till all
suspicion of danger is over.

At first we attempted to dig them out with a spade, but without any great
success; for either we could not get to the bottom of the hole, which
often terminated under a great stone; or else in breaking up the ground
we inadvertently squeezed the poor insect to death. Out of one so
bruised we took a multitude of eggs, which were long and narrow, of a
yellow colour, and covered with a very tough skin. By this accident we
learned to distinguish the male from the female; the former of which is
shining black, with a golden stripe across his shoulders; the latter is
more dusky, more capacious about the abdomen, and carries a long sword-
shaped weapon at her tail, which probably is the instrument with which
she deposits her eggs in crannies and safe receptacles.

Where violent methods will not avail, more gentle means will often
succeed, and so it proved in the present case; for, though a spade be too
boisterous and rough an implement, a pliant stalk of grass, gently
insinuated into the caverns, will probe their windings to the bottom, and
quic