252 FISHING GOSSIP. 



to which if you lay your ear, you shall hear, as it 

 were, the noise of smiths at work, one-while blowing 

 the bellows, another-while striking of sledge and 

 hammer ; sometimes the sound of a grindstone and 

 iron tools rubbing against it, also the hissing sparks 

 of goads from the furnace." Can this be Vulcan 

 forging the bolts of Jove, with which tradition states 

 that Neptune once armed Britannia's hand for a 

 highly patriotic purpose ? 



Endless are the springs we meet with that " freeze 

 in the hottest weather and are hot in winter," and 

 lakes which seem to possess some irritable Genius who 

 does not like the throwing of stones, for we read of 

 two or three, "the which, if a pebble is cast into 

 them, they raise storms of hail, lightning, and 

 thunder." Waters, " which have the most marvellous 

 and rapid effect in petrifying all that they come in 

 contact with," are also to be found at least in books. 

 Collier mentions that " Chatri Columbe, a tailor's wife 

 in Burgundy, accidentally drank of some of these 

 waters after she was married, the result of which 

 was, that her first child, a daughter, when born, was 

 discovered to be a perfectly-formed petrifaction. She 

 lived in the time of Henry III. of England." 



Of waters which, for some occult reason or other, 

 prefer a subterranean channel, the examples also are 

 very numerous if we are to believe these old his- 

 torians : 



