298 Wild Life in a Southern County 



turf is short and the earth hard. Until stepped on and 

 broken, the two halves of the shell are usually complete, 

 and generally still attached, showing that the crow has 

 split the shell open skilfully. They range from two or 

 three to nine inches in length. The largest are much less 

 common ; those of five or six inches are numerous. Some 

 of the old-fashioned housewives use a nine-inch mussel- 

 shell, well-cleaned, as a ladle for their sugar jars. 



Now and then, at long intervals, an exceptionally dry 

 season so lowers the level of the mere that all the shallower 

 parts become land, and are even passable on foot, though 

 in places quicksands and deep fine mud must be carefully 

 avoided. The fish that previously could enjoy a swim of 

 some three-quarters of a mile are then forced to retire to 

 one deep hole only a few acres in extent. Now commences 

 a reign of terror, of which it is difficult to convey an 

 adequate idea. 



These waters have not been netted for years, and con- 

 sequently both pike and perch have increased to an extra- 

 ordinary degree, and many of them have attained huge 

 proportions. Pike of six pounds are commonly caught ; 

 eight, ten, twelve, and fourteen pound fish have often 

 been landed. There was a tradition of a pike that weighed 

 a quarter of a hundredweight, but one day the tradition 

 was put into the shade by the capture of a pike that scaled 

 a little over thirty pounds. There are supposed to be 

 several more such monsters of the deep, since every now 

 and then some labourer passing by on a sunny day, when 

 jack approach the shore and bask near the surface, declares 

 that he has seen one as big as a man's leg. But about 

 the vast number of ordinary-sized jack there can be no 

 doubt at all ; since any one may see them who will stroll 

 by the water's edge on a bright warm day, taking care to 



