II. BEVOLVma ANIMALS. 



" Thou man, who art the universe in little, cease for a moment 

 from thy absorption in loss and gain : take one draught at the hand 

 of him who presses creation's cup to thy lips, and so free thyself 

 from the cares of this world and those about another." (PERSIA) 

 KEIJAM. 



JUST within the border of Epping Forest, in the 

 neighbourhood of Walthamstow, is a number of 

 ponds and ditches in the fate of which some few 

 naturalists are at the present time * nervously in- 

 terested. It is reported that the City of London 

 Corporation intend to drain and otherwise im- 

 prove this neighbourhood ; and as this may mean 

 the obliteration of these precious ponds, the lovers 

 of nature, or the special kind of that nature in this 

 special district, are alarmed, and would fain draw off 

 the drainage operations to other localities. As the 



* The reader must remember that this was written in April, 

 1882, and was then also published in the St. James's Gazette. ED. 



