2 8 4 THE YORKSHIRE FEN 



lingering surface waters might be made to disappear. 

 The drainage and enclosure of the flats, now separated 

 by deep and impassable streams, and planted with wide 

 and enduring woods by private owners, extends a natural 

 protection to the remaining species which still in count- 

 less numbers make the " carrs " their home. In no 

 inland region that the writer has yet seen are the larger 

 birds found in such astonishing numbers, or so easily 

 observed, as in the wooded portions of the "carrs." 

 Nor need this be matter for surprise, where food, water, 

 shelter, and quiet are found over vast spaces of land. 

 The farms and villages are far removed on the higher 

 ground, seated, as it were, with their feet in the quiet 

 marshes, where breadth and solitude are broken only by 

 the thick and silent woods, and the slow-running rivers : 

 a dark country, with dark skies, and trees, and waters. 

 The very mole-hills are black, and the dykes bridged 

 by heart of oak, black as coal, and dug from the peat 

 of the fen. Even on the sound land on the border of 

 the marsh, where the ancient trees survive, the giant 

 poplars which fringe the pools have leaves as dark as 

 those on which the vapours of invaded Tartarus left 

 their mark for ever. Yet, unlike most marsh-lands, 

 the " carrs " are neither gloomy nor deserted. But 

 birds, not men, people the flats ; and to meet them the 

 visitor must keep early hours, and be abroad by sunrise, 

 or in summer a little later ; for it is possible to be too 

 early for the birds, even after day has broken, and at 

 four o'clock on a summer's morning even they are 

 scarcely awake. Here there is no sudden leap of 



