PAGES OF HAKE LORE 37 



powers of the hare, which may now be considered 

 classical — ' A harbour of great extent on our northern 

 coast has an island near the middle of considerable 

 size, the nearest point of which is a mile distant from 

 the mainland at high water, and with which point 

 there is frequent communication by a ferry. Early 

 one morning in spring two hares were observed to 

 come down from the hills of the mainland towards the 

 seaside ; one of which from time to time left its com- 

 panion, and proceeding to the edge of the water, 

 stopped there a minute or two, and then returned to 

 its mate. The tide was rising, and after waiting some 

 time, one of them, exactly at high water, took to the 

 sea and swam rapidly over, in a straight line, to the 

 opposite projecting point of land. The observer 

 on this occasion, who was near the spot, but re- 

 mained unperceived by the hares, had no doubt 

 they were of different sexes, and that it was the 

 male which swam across the water, as he had probably 

 done many times before. It was remarkable that the 

 hares had remained on the shore nearly half an hour ; 

 one of them occasionally examining, as it would seem, 

 the state of the current, and ultimately taking to the 

 sea at that precise period of the tide called slack water, 

 when the passage across could be effected without 

 being carried by the force of the stream either above 



