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210
The Fairy-Land of Science
·
Arabella B. Buckley
45
Did
you
ever
sit
on
the
bank
of
a
river
in
some
quiet
spot
where
the
water
was
deep
and
clear,
and
watch
the
fishes
swimming
lazily
along?
When
I
was
a
child
this
was
one
of
my
favourite
occupations
in
the
summertime
on
the
banks
of
the
Thames,
and
there
was
one
question
which
often
puzzled
me
greatly,
as
I
watched
the
minnows
and
gudgeon
gliding
along
through
the
water.
Why
should
fishes
live
in
something
and
be
often
buffeted
about
by
waves
and
currents,
while
I
and
others
lived
on
the
top
of
the
earth
and
not
in
anything?
I
do
not
remember
ever
asking
anyone
about
this;
and
if
I
had,
in
those
days
people
did
not
pay
much
attention
to
children's
questions,
and
probably
nobody
would
have
told
me,
what
I
now
tell
you,
that
we
do
live
in
something
quite
as
real
and
often
quite
as
rough
and
stormy
as
the
water
in
which
the
fishes
swim.
The
something
in
which
we
live
is
air,
and
the
reason
that
we
do
not
perceive
it,
is
that
we
are
in
it,
and
that
it
is
a
gas,
and
invisible
to
us;
while
we
are
above
the
water
in
which
the
fishes
live,
and
it
is
a
liquid
which
our
eyes
can
perceive.
But
let
us
suppose
for
a
moment
that
a
being,
whose
eyes
were
so
made
that
he
could
see
gases
as
we
see
liquids,
was
looking
down
from
a
distance
upon
our
earth.
He
would
see
an
ocean
of
air,
or
aerial
ocean,
all
round
the
globe,
with
birds
floating
about
in
it,
and
people
walking
along
the
bottom,
just
as
we
see
fish
gliding
along
the
bottom
of
a
river.
It
is
true,
he
would
never
see
even
the
birds
come
near
to
the
surface,
for
the
highest-
flying
bird,
the
condor,
never
soars
more
than
five
miles
from
the
ground,
and
our
atmosphere,
as
we
shall
see,
is
at
least
100
miles
high.
So
he
would
call
us
all
deep-air
creatures,
just
as
we
talk
of
deep-sea
animals;
and
if
we
can
imagine
that
he
fished
in
this
air-ocean,
and
could
pull
one
of
us
out
of
it
into
space,
he
would
find
that
we
should
gasp
and
die
just
as
fishes
do
when
pulled
out
of
the
water.
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