NATURE NEAR LONDON 



transparent, and the eye can see underneath the 

 keel. 



Here, by some decaying piles, a deep eddy whirls 

 slowly round and round ; they stand apart from the 

 shore, for the eddy has cleared away the earth 

 around them. Now, walking behind the waves 

 that roll away from you, dark shadowy spots 

 fluctuate to and fro in the trough of the water. 

 Before a glance can define its shape the shadow 

 elongates itself from a spot to an oval, the oval 

 melts into another oval, and reappears afar off. 

 When, too, in flood time, the hurrying current 

 seems to respond more sensitively to the shape of 

 the shallows and the banks beneath, there boils up 

 from below a ceaseless succession of irregular cir- 

 cles as if the water there expanded from a centre, 

 marking the verge of its outflow with bubbles 

 and raised lines upon the surface. 



By the side float tiny whirlpools, some rotating 

 this way and some that, sucking down and boring 

 tubes into the stream. Longer lines wander past, 

 and as they go, curve round, till when about to 

 make a spiral they lengthen out and drift, and thus, 

 perpetually coiling and uncoiling, glide with the 

 current. They somewhat resemble the conven- 

 tional curved strokes which, upon an Assyrian bas- 

 relief, indicate water. 



Under the spring sunshine, the idle stream flows 

 -158- 



