90 WITH THE WOODLANDERS. 



miles away, to spend the Sunday there, when the 

 young man appeared whom I had fitted up with 

 that strong tackle. 



" That there caper did it," he cried, with a merry 

 laugh. " I got him right off; he was a real good 

 un. Mother's that glad, she's sent summat in this 

 basket for ye. Marksman was right when he said 

 you was the one to see." 



Since my first visit to the lonely pool, as I always 

 call it, I have at different times wandered up and 

 down the whole length of the waters that at last 

 run into the Wey ; water - courses that are little 

 known, forming small lakes and great pools, where 

 reeds and sedges grow in rank luxuriance. Nearly 

 all the streams run through moorland bogs. At 

 the present time fish are abundant in these waters, 

 but the fishing is preserved. Wild-fowl, with the 

 exception of ducks, teal, coots, moor - hens, and 

 rails, are occasional visitants. At one time things 

 were different. The snipes do not breed here, for 

 their favourite haunts have been drained, I have 

 a great desire to describe, before they pass away, 

 in the course of changes that are inevitable, a long 

 line of alders and reeds that runs, with breaks here 



