Where the Mares- tail flourishes 305 



in the water-carriers in the great irrigated meadows, but 

 are careful to remain far out of range ; so that the only 

 way to shoot them by day is for two or more sportsmen 

 to post themselves behind the hedges in different places 

 while a third drives them up. 



The first snipes are seen generally in the arable lands, 

 afterwards round the lake the muddy shores by choice 

 and finally in the brooks. As the winter advances they 

 seem to quit the lake in great part and go down to the 

 brooks. A streamlet that runs through a peaty field is a 

 favourite spot. The little jack-snipe frequent the water- 

 carriers in the irrigated meadows, and the wet furrows. 

 When the lake is frozen over the wild duck stand on the 

 ice in the daytime for hours together, leaving the marks of 

 their feet on it. 



In walking along the shore lines of drift may be noticed, 

 marking the height to which the waves driven by the wind 

 have carried the floating twigs, weeds, and leaves : just as 

 along the sea the beach is formed into terraces by the 

 changing height of the tides. The shallower parts of the 

 lake are so thickly grown in summer with aquatic weeds 

 that a boat can only be forced through them with the utmost 

 difficulty. Some of these grow in as much as eight or even 

 ten feet of water. On the shore, where it is marshy, the 

 mare's-tail flourishes over some acres: there is often a 

 slight marshy odour here, which increases as the foot presses 

 the yielding mud. 



When the water is low in autumn these are mown, 

 and. with the aquatic grasses at the edge and the rushes, 

 made into the roughest kind of hay imaginable. The 

 coarser parts are used as litter ; the best is mixed with 

 fodder and eaten by cattle. Many waggon loads are thus 

 taken away, but as many more remain ; and in walking 



x 



