24 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
a rough estimate of the value of the timbers, which were consider- 
able, growing at that time in the district of the Holt ; and enumer- 
ates the officers, superior and inferior, of those joint forests, for the 
time being, and their ostensible fees and perquisites. In those 
days, as at present, there were hardly any trees in Wolmer 
Forest. 
Within the present limits of the forest are three considerable 
lakes, Hogmer, Cranmer, and Wolmer; all of which are stocked 
with carp, tench, eels, and perch: but the fish do not thrive well 
because the water is hungry, and the bottoms are a naked sand. 
A circumstance respecting these ponds, though by no means 
peculiar to them, I cannot pass over in silence; and that is, that 
instinct by which in summer all the kine, whether oxen, cows, 
calves, or heifers, retire constantly to the water during the hotter 
hours; where, being more exempt from flies, and inhaling the 
coolness of that element, some belly deep, and some only to mid- 
leg, they ruminate and solace themselves from about ten in the 
morning till four in the afternoon, and then return to their feeding. 
During this great proportion of the day they drop much dung, in 
which insects nestle; and so supply food for the fish, which would 
be poorly subsisted but from this contingency. Thus Nature, who 
is a great economist, converts the recreation of one animal to the 
support of another! Thomson, who was a nice observer of natural 
occurrences, did not let this pleasing circumstance escape him. 
He says, in his Summer, 
** A various group the herds and flocks compose ; 
— on the grassy bank 
Some ruminating lie; while others stand 
Half in the flood, and, often bending, sip 
The circling surface.” 
Wolmer Pond, so called, I suppose, for eminence sake, is a vast 
lake for this part of the world, containing, in its whole circumfer- 
ence, 2646 yards, or very near a mile and anhalf. The length of the 
north-west and opposite side is about 704 yards, and the breadth of 
the south-west end about 456 yards. This measurement, which I 
caused to be made with good exactness, gives an area of about 
sixty-six acres, exclusive of a large irregular arm at the north-east 
corner, which we did not take into the reckoning. 
On the face of this expanse of waters, and perfectly secure from 
fowlers. lie all day long, in the winter season, vast flocks of ducks, 
