362 WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



the turf is short and the earth hard. Until stepped 

 on and broken, the two halves of the shell are usually 

 complete, and generally still attached, showing that 

 the crow has split the shell open skilfully. They 

 range from two or three to nine inches in length. 

 The largest are much less common ; those of five or six 

 inches are numerous. Some of the old-fashioned house- 

 wives use a nine-inch mussel-shell, well-cleaned, as a 

 ladle for their sugar jars. 



Now and then, at long intervals, an exceptionally 

 dry season so lowers the level of the mere that all 

 the shallower parts become land, and are even pass- 

 able on foot, though in places quicksands and deep, 

 fine mud must be carefully avoided. The fish that 

 previously could enjoy a swim of some three-quarters 

 of a mile are then forced to retire to one deep hole 

 only a few acres in extent. Now commences a reign 

 of terror of which it is difficult to convey an adequate 

 idea. 



These waters have not been netted for years, and 

 consequently both pike and perch have increased to 

 an extraordinary degree, and many of them have 

 attained huge proportions. Pike of six pounds are 

 commonly caught ; eight, ten, twelve, and fourteen 

 pound fish have often been landed. There was a tradi- 

 tion of a pike that weighed a quarter of a hundred- 

 weight, but one day the tradition was put into the 

 shade by the capture of a pike that scaled a little over 

 thirty pounds. There are supposed to be several 

 more such monsters of the deep, since every now and 



