WINTRY WATERS 135 



the mill-race it was half a degree warmer ; and only 

 where very shallow and still did it fall as low as thirty- 

 five and a half degrees. It is therefore possible for a 

 chalk stream to maintain its heat, after a week of one 

 of the severest frosts on record, at some fifteen degrees 

 above the midday temperature of the land and four 

 above freezing-point. No wonder that the birds seek 

 its genial neighbourhood, and its own particular inhabit- 

 ants feel neither discomfort nor dismay. We were 

 curious to visit the famous salmon-pool at Swathling, 

 some few miles lower down the river, and mark the 

 effects of frost in a part where the river-waters are dis- 

 tributed in every form, from still frozen lakes and 

 water-meadow channels to the mill-race, and the deep, 

 swirling pool, in which a thirty-pound salmon may be 

 caught, not two hours by rail from London. The 

 Wood Mill pool is the crowning glory of the river. 

 Two streams, one from the main mill-head, another 

 from a tributary, rush into a wide horse-shoe basin faced 

 with cam-shedding and concrete, where the waters whirl 

 and spin in an everlasting eddy. Ice in powder, ice in 

 blocks, and ice in sheets pouring in from the mill- 

 head, followed the spin of the waters round, and 

 showed the force of each minor whirlpool, clinking and 

 shivering against the concrete walls, except where the 

 long, thick strands of moss deadened its impact. At 

 the back of the pool, a shallow beck was running 

 below a covering of thin sheets, made up of ice-stars, 

 with upturned edges fringed with crystal spikes, 

 shifting and straining with uneasy motion. Higher up, 



