FISHING AND PHILOSOPHY 135 

 above, sprang- to catch the vole, who was just a 

 shade too quick, and sHppcd into the water with 

 the rat after him, both swimming under the surface. 

 On reaching the far side the vole ran along for a 

 few yards, then dived back into the water, pursued 

 by his enemy, came out of the water on my side, 

 ran a few yards, and dived into the water a second 

 time. As far as I could see, the brown rat was the 

 faster swimmer of the two. The third time the 

 vole entered the water the rat was almost up to 

 him, and on reaching the far side he caught him. 

 In the struggle they both fell back into the pool, 

 and the rat was the first to come to the surface. 

 The reason of that, I suppose, w^as because he was 

 not able to stay under water so long as the vole, 

 who apparently was not any the worse, as he made 

 for the opposite side again. And so ended an 

 unsuccessful attempt at murder. 



Anyone who has closely watched a vole swimming 

 will have noticed that his mouth opens and shuts 

 with great rapidity, keeping time with his strokes. 

 Noticing this, I came to the conclusion that the 

 vole does this to keep his lungs full of air in case 

 he has to take a hasty dive. 



On another occasion, when fishing in one of the 

 North Country rivers, I met a vole carrying a young 

 one. Spotting me, she stopped only for a second 

 and dropped the young one into a small pool left by 



