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_ to get an owl’s nest, which was built in some rocks on the river 
Petteril. We could not find access to it from below, so I being 
the slimmest of the party, was lowered from above by my com- 
panions to the hole in which it was, but in my endeavours to 
snatch at some roots of ivy, so as to bring me closer to the place, 
the rope broke, and I fell some twenty-five feet, crashing through 
the undergrowth, bushes, and trees, till I landed on ¢erra firma. 1 
was very much bruised, and my clothes torn into shreds, but no 
bones were broken. On another occasion, when getting at some 
Sand Martins’ nests on a steep scaur on the Eden, also at New- 
biggin quarry; with one toe inserted in a hole, one of my 
companions gripping me by the wrist, another holding him by the 
legs, there I was dangling over the brink, trusting to such frail 
support. If anything had happened, I should have fallen from a 
height of about seventy feet. Also on Rockcliffe Marsh, when 
nearly surrounded by the tide whilst taking a bee-line over the 
sands for the ground; but if I had to enumerate all our critical 
situations, it would take up this paper alone. 
Many walks have we taken to Bowness, and thence on to the 
Flow, in spring and summer, all aglow with golden gorse and 
_ purple heather, emerald sphagnum, snowy cotton grass, and ruby 
- sundews, not forgetting the pretty bells of the beautiful polyfolia, 
a sure sign of a spongy bottom. We have wandered for miles 
over this moss, jumping from tussock to tussock ; it required you 
to have some knowledge of the place, as one false step in some 
parts would land you up to the knees in the deceitful bog. What 
scores of nests have we seen there in years gone by! It wasa 
‘magnificent sight to see the Great Black-backed Gulls sailing 
majestically overhead, uttering their shrill cries, assailing us at 
times with dashing swoop. 
| _ Who that has spent all night in a wood, near some river, cannot 
but be struck with the strange, distinct noises that he hears? 
_ Sound seems to be intensified, so to speak ; or, perhaps, you rely 
more upon your ears than your eyes. At times a chance Hare, 
q who, possibly, has been disturbed, comes bump, bumping along, 
