EIVER GARDENS; 



under our eyes, undisturbed by the continual neces- 

 sity of changing the water ; thus affording us the 

 curious spectacle of many phases of animal life that 

 have hitherto lain concealed in depths inaccessible 

 to the observation of the most curious observer. 



I can well recollect my first longings, as a 

 young naturalist, to unravel the mystery of the 

 teeming world of life beneath the waters. The 

 Pictures of those days are still vivid as things of 

 yesterday. Perhaps more so; for later sensations 

 are faint in comparison to those keen first impres- 

 sions of nature in the days of early youth. I re- 

 member the eager, straining curiosity with which 

 I endeavoured to look down into the transparent 

 depths of the brooks and ponds of my native War- 

 wickshire, seeking to trace the outline and move- 

 ments of dim forms that I could imperfectly per- 

 ceive gliding among the tangle of rushes and Algce 

 far beneath the surface. But one favourite fish- 

 pond, in the orchard of an old house, the residence 

 of a distant relative, riveted more than any other 

 my greedy curiosity. I have lain for hours on the 

 grassy border of that weed-grown water, peering 

 between the floating leaves of the Progbit, or 

 "Water Plantain, into the clear brown depths be- 

 neath. It seemed a world full of wonders. I saw 



