Thomas Miller, The Boy’s summer book. Descriptive of the season scenery, rural life and country amusements, New York, Harper & Brothers, 1847, p.71-72.

But the most skillful of all the caddis worms, which build under water is the one which makes itself a hollow  tube out of small stones, composed of such angles as would frighten any human architect ; nor would a man attempt to form any thing like an arch. Out of such irregular materials, unless they were first cut and hewed into a proper form. Yet all this is managed by the little insect, selecting such stones as fit into each other, contriving also to leave the lower part smooth and even , so that it may drag its house along with greater esase when moving at the bottom of the stream ; neither will water dissolve the cement used by these curious insects ; nor must I omit that that portion of the body which projects from the doorway of the cell is hard and firm, while the portion that remains within is soft. Thus you see, that even they are adapted for their state, and armed against trifling accidents ; and throughout all nature we shall find this to be the case- no matter how insignificant an insect may appear, it is so constructed as to be able to provide itself with food and shelter ; and we can not remove the decayed bark from a tree, the moss from a wall or even a coiled-up leaf, without discovering, after a minute survey, that each of these is the home of some living object.