244 



THE ANGLER'S SOUVENIR. 



well, particularly in the matter of bottled beer and 

 tobacco ; and we took care to have plenty of fishing 

 tackle with us. We started from Norwich with 

 a light breeze, which wafted us gently along at a 

 steady pace. With our large sail set we glided 

 along with the ease of a dream, at first between 

 trees whose leaves danced merrily in the summer 

 wind, and then between drooping willows, shivering 

 and paling with the gentle violence of the zephyrs 

 even as the water below trembled and whitened 

 with the ripples. On we went with softest motion, 

 the bow of the boat parting the water tenderly, 

 and leaving two long wave-lines diverging and 

 retreating from our troubled wake. The yellow 

 iris flower shone in the long, green ranks of the 

 tall flags, the bulrush bowed its head of regal 

 purple, and the reedmace shook its plumes on 

 either side of us ; and then we were out upon the 

 marshes, which stretched as far as eye could reach, 

 yet it was not by any means a monotonous picture. 

 The marsh itself was beautiful. Here a tract of 

 white cotton-grass, there a patch of yellow, all 

 around greys, and browns, and reds, and greens 

 mingled in wonderful harmony, and varying in- 

 conceivably in tint as the shadows of the cloudlets 

 floated over the luxuriant marsh grasses, and the 

 wind swayed them in billowy undulations. There 

 was light and motion everywhere ; not the jarring 

 motion of a crowd in a street, but the silent mystic 

 motion of the northern lights in a winter sky. The 



