CHAPTER VII. 



BITS BY POND, RIVER, AND SEASHORE. 



THIS chapter deals with three wide fields all teeming 

 with life ; and therefore only the commonest of 

 creatures, and such as lend themselves to portrayal 

 by means of the camera, can claim our attention 

 within its pages. 



Newts, or efts as they are called in some parts 

 of the country, are common in most ponds, and seem 

 to be in possession of extremely shrewd notions of 

 how to take care of themselves. I watched a couple 

 ascend a little creek on the side of a cattle pond 

 one day in search of something to eat, and stealing 

 quietly up behind them barred their way out, and 

 being an old hand at trout tickling, soon caught 

 the pair and put them into an empty lemonade 

 bottle which I found close by and filled with water. 

 I stood it up in a cow's hoof-hole for a few minutes 

 whilst I went in search of a worm or two where- 

 with to render my captives happy in their new 

 quarters ; but when I came back one of them had 

 regained the pond, and the other arrived so near it 

 that he beat me in the race and swam away before 

 I could lay hands on him. It is amusing to sit and 



