t, until a small pile of the spent
ammunition had accumulated at several inches distance, and at length the
hole entirely disappeared, the earth in its vicinity presenting an
apparently level surface--an armed peace, in truth, with the two touchy
curved calipers on duty, as already described.

[Illustration]

Following the hint of past experience, I concluded to explore the depths
of one of these tunnels, especially as I desired a specimen of the wily
tenant for portraiture; and it is, indeed, an odd fish that one may land
on the surface if he be sufficiently alert in his angling. No hook or
bait is required in this sort of fishing. Taking a long culm of
timothy-grass, I inserted the tip into the burrow. It progressed without
impediment two, three, six, eight inches, and when at the depth of about
ten inches appeared to touch bottom, which in this kind of angling is
the signal for a "strike" and the landing of the game. Instantly
withdrawing the grass culm, I found my fish at its tip, from which he
quickly dropped to the ground. His singular identity is shown in my
illustration--an uncouth nondescript among grubs. His body is whitish
and soft, with a huge hump on the lower back armed with two small hooks.
His enormous head is now seen to be apparently circular in outline, and
we readily see how perfectly it would fill the opening of the burrow
like an operculum. But a close examination shows us that this operculum
is really composed of two halves, on two separate segments of the body,
the segment at the extremity only being the true head, armed with its
powerful, sharp, curved jaws. As he lies there sprawling on his six
spider-like legs, we may now easily test the skill of his trap, and gain
some idea of his voracious personality.

If with the point of our knife-blade, holding it in the direction of the
insect's body, we now touch its tail, what a display of vehement
acrobatics! Instantly the agile body is bent backward in a loop, while
the teeth fasten to the knife-blade with an audible click. If our
finger-tip is substituted for the steel, the force of the stroke and the
prick and grip of the jaws are unpleasantly perceptible.

In order to fully comprehend the make-up of this curious cave-dweller we
must turn biologists for the moment. He must be considered from the
evolutionary stand-point, or at least from the stand-point of
comparative anatomy.

The first discovery that we make is that as we now see him he is