118 THE OPEN AIR. 



Westminster and the Houses of Parliament, right up 

 to Mortlake. It is really a wonderful thing that 

 a denizen of the sea, so large and interesting as a 

 porpoise, should come right through the vast City of 

 London. In an aquarium, people would go to see it 

 and admire it, and take their children to see it. What 

 happened ? Some one hastened out in a boat, armed 

 with a gun or a rifle, and occupied himself with 

 shooting at it. He did not succeed in killing it, 

 but it was wounded. Some difference here to the 

 spirit of John Eussell. If I may be permitted to 

 express an opinion, I think that there is not a single 

 creature, from the sand-marten and the black-headed 

 bunting to the broad-winged heron, from the water- 

 vole to the otter, from the minnow on one side of the 

 tidal boundary to the porpoise on the other big and 

 little, beasts and birds (of prey or not) that should 

 not be encouraged and protected on this beautiful river, 

 morally the property of the greatest city in the world. 



II. 



I looked forward to living by the river with delight, 

 anticipating the long rows I should have past the 

 green eyots and the old houses red-tiled among the 

 trees. I should pause below the weir and Jisten to 

 the pleasant roar, and watch the fisherman cast again 

 and again with the " transcendent patience " of genius 

 by which alone the Thames trout is captured. Twist- 

 ing the end of a willow bough round my wrist I could 

 moor myself and rest at ease, though the current 

 roared under the skiff, fresh from the waterfall. A 



