icjir^ DOBBS. — Lianinous Ozvh. 125 



The Blackwatcr River here is from 200 to 400 yards 

 wide, and about a mile below the fcrr}^ it is joined by the 

 Bride, also a tidal river, and about fifty yards wide ; 

 between the two rivers is a stretch of low-lying fields 

 with no habitation on them, the whole forming a triangle 

 with sides a mile long each. The river is kept out by a 

 high embankment on which one can walk, but between 

 the bank and the fields there is a deep broad ditch by no 

 means easy to cross without a plank ; in fact, the only 

 way to get on or off the embankment is at each end, where 

 it abuts on the road from the ferry to the Bride bridge, 

 which forms the third side of the triangle. 



I and my two sisters were on the ferry slip one evening 

 at the end of last December, about 2 J hours after sunset ; 

 the night was dark but we could see the course of the river 

 and shape of the hills about. We lingered a moment to 

 see if any birds were \-isible. 



We saw a light flash up on the left across the river, 

 half-way up the hillside ; it was reflected brightly in the 

 river, the night being perfectly calm. It disappeared at 

 once and I remarked that " it must have been a cottage 

 door opened." Then a moment later it came again in the 

 same place but went up with a swoop to nearly the top 

 of the hill, a rise of some 100 feet in a few seconds, and 

 then moved rapidly to the right, got dimmer and 

 disappeared ; it appeared again beating backwards and 

 forwards along the hillside with long swoops, but was not 

 so brilliant. At the same time a light appeared down the 

 river and it looked as though someone were carrying a 

 lantern and walking along the top of the embankment 

 towards us and about a half mile away. 



It was difficult to see if this was moving much or not, 

 but it seemed to be coming nearer and to go out over the 

 river once or twice, and then disappeared. A few minutes 

 later we saw it again much nearer, a quarter of a mile off, 

 and it gave the impression of moving rapidly towards us 

 and about three feet from the ground ; it came to within 

 100 yards and then the bird turned and the light vanished 

 for a moment, and we saw it again out over the fields to 

 the right, 200 yards away and pretty high up. 



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