GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. 21 



that : but she sits on the eggs, reeds and all, and the eggs 

 are then of a dingy brown. 



A very fine specimen of the IMBER, or GREAT NORTH- 

 ERN DTVER, was shot a few years back, on Old Pond : its 

 power of diving, and the length of time it stayed under 

 water, were wonderful"; for this purpose I find it is fur- 

 nished with an immense bladder, extenditg the whole 

 length of its neck, which it can inflate at pleasure, and, this 

 being connected with the windpipe, is of course available 

 as a reservoir of air. The capture of this bird, after a 

 residence of about a fortnight, was quite an event in the 

 annals of Old Pond. The bird was admirably stuffed by 

 Waring Kidd, and solemnly installed in a conspicuous 

 situation at Mr. Moline's residence at Godalming.* 



* I may perhaps venture to add a note touching the boating on Old Pond, a 

 pursuit, which, at the time the Letters of Rusticus were written, was much in 

 vogue. The boating was not always without risk of accidents, as I can bear 

 ample testimony. 



quseque ipse miserrima vidi, 



Et quorum pars magna fui. 



We always selected the most windy days for a sail, because the more wind the 

 more fun. One day early in March a tremendous east wind invited us to have 

 a sail : it was one of those winds that seem to come through one's clothes as 

 though it despised such slight impediments. For some time we went careering 

 through the ripple at a spanking rate ; the little craft bent beautifully to the 

 breeze, the sails were skilfully handled, and the tacks made to perfection : but 

 the spirit of mischief was afoot, and he who worked the mainsail had the teme- 

 rity to make it fast : the rate increased and we were in full glee, when an irre- 

 sistible gust capsized us in an instant : one moment we were calmly seated 

 admiring our skill, and the very next we were scrambling for an awkward and 

 precarious footing upon any part of the boat above water, our clothes drenched 

 and the bitter east wind penetrating as it seemed to the very bones and 

 marrow. To right the boat was impossible in such a gale ; and to stand or 

 sit in our drenched clothes perfectly unendurable: and how were we ever to get 

 ashore! In this emergency, having first secured a rope, I jumped overboard 

 and found I could touch the bottom, the water just coming up to my neck: 

 cool, certainly, but warmer than the air. I began walking towards the nearest 



