66 THE EEPORT OF THE No. 36 



So let us live. Is not the life well spent 



Which loves the lot that kindly Nature weaves 



For all inheriting, or adorning, earth ? 



Which shows light pleasure over true content, ^ 



Blossoms with fruitage, flowers as well as leaves, 



And sweetens wisdom with a taste of mirth ? 



— Thomas Douhleday. 



It was " a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out 

 of valleys and hills." 



In one of the brooks I had a particular interest, for it ran through my 

 own meadow, and under my windows, and bounded two sides of my garden. A 

 quarter of a mile beyond, it "turned a mill." 



I had in those days what the poet Samuel Rogers desired when he wrote: — 



" Mine be a cot beside a hill; 



A bee-hive's hum shall soothe mine ear; 

 A willowy brook that turns a mill. 

 With many a fall shall murmur near." 



Fig. 30. Cray-fish. 



One day I resolved to trace the stream to its source. I found that it was not 

 the discharge of a mountain tarn, as many a brook in that part of the country is. 

 Like the River Thames, in England, it took its rise in a spring, and increased in 

 volume from the outflow of other springs, and from the surface drainage of the 

 hill-sides. 



One of the tributary springs was near my house. It had been "cleaned out" 

 and a bottomless half-barrel inserted; and this was always full, and running over, 

 with pure, translucent water. The movement of the sand at the bottom of it 

 could be seen as the water bub]3led up. 



One day, on looking in, I noticed two creatures crawling over the sandy bottom 

 of the spring; they were Cray-fish. I fished them out and placed them in a vessel 

 of water, that I might observe them closely. What strange creatures they were ! 

 They had nippers like the scorpion; stalk-eyes like the chameleon, antennse like 

 an insect, and fan-tails like the birds. They seemed a freak of Nature. 



It was interesting to watch the backward movement of the cray-fish to escape 

 a threatening object — it was made by an underisweep of the tail. Meanwhile, the 

 creature never came into collision with anything behind it. It kept one eye oo 



