vi INTRODUCTION. 



commanded to consider them, and particularly to observe 

 and take notice of their various structures, ends, and uses, 

 and to give God the praise ; " and adds, that the reason why 

 so many kinds of creatures were made " might be to exer- 

 cise the contemplative faculty of man ; " and we have only to 

 exercise the faculty of observation to find ourselves in 

 the presence of innumerable objects of interest. We can 

 be " far from the madding crowd," yet in the midst of living 

 beings. Rest for a moment on that old and rotten tree, 

 levelled to the ground by a passing storm ; strip off a piece 

 of the bark, it will be found to be teeming with life. Sit 

 on that old boulder relic, may be, of the glacier age now 

 covered with moss and lichen, and turn over the dead 

 leaves at your feet ; beetles and other insects of various 

 forms and hues will scuttle away to seek some fresh hiding- 

 place. Cast your eyes upwards ; the air above is peopled 

 with winged creatures, the trees and hedgerows resound 

 with the " hum of bees, the voice of birds." 



Go where you will on the placid waters of the meres 

 and lakes, by the rushing rivers or babbling brooks 

 animated nature is above and around you. Birds are 

 singing in the air, resting in the bushes, creeping or hiding 

 in the reeds. Listen to the warning Churr-churr of the 

 sedge-warbler hark to the carol of the lark, a speck in 

 the blue ether watch the rapid flight of the swift, now 

 skimming the surface of the water in front of us, and now 

 far away over the distant meadows. New objects, as 

 Ray says, afford us great delight, especially if discovered 

 by our own industry, and provide us employment most 

 delightful and agreeable to our nature and inclinations. 



In describing the various objects 'in the following pages, 

 our aim has been to bring them before the reader as they 

 may be met with, either in or on the water, or in its imme- 



