188 TEE LIFE OF THE FIELDS. 



to get up at five will find them ravenous. We often 

 visited the place a little after that hour. A swim was 

 generally the first thing, and I mention a swim because 

 it brings me to the way in which this mere pond 

 illustrated the great ocean which encircles the world. 

 For it is well known that the mighty ocean is belted 

 with currents, the cold water of the Polar seas seeking 

 the warmth of the Equator, and the warm water of the 

 Equator floating like the Gulf Stream towards the 

 Pole, floating because (I think I am right) the warm 

 water runs on the surface. The favourite spot for 

 swimming in our pond was in such a position that a 

 copse cast a wide piece of water there into deep shadow 

 all the morning up till ten o'clock at least. At six in the 

 morning this did not matter, all the water was of much 

 the same temperature; having been exposed to the 

 night everywhere, it was cold of course. 



But after ten the thing was different ; by that time 

 the hot reaper's sun had warmed the surface of the open 

 water on which the rays fell almost from the moment 

 the sun rose. Towards eleven o'clock the difference in 

 temperature was marked ; but those who then came to 

 bathe, walking along the shore or rowing, dipped their 

 hands in and found the water warm, and anticipated 

 that it would be equally so at the bathing-place. So 

 it was at the surface, for the warm water had begun 

 to flow in, and the cold water out, rather deeper, setting 

 up, in fact, an exact copy of the current of the ocean, 

 the shadowed part by the copse representing the Polar 

 area. Directly any one began to swim he found the 

 difference, the legs went down into cold water, and in 

 many cases cramp ensued with alarming results and 



