DOWN THE BECK 33 



The various animals again to be found down the 

 Beck, and the intimate acquaintance which can be 

 made with them in their native haunts, form by 

 no means the least of its charms. It is wonderful 

 how tame all wild creatures become, and how their 

 characters expand to men, who, like Waterton and 

 Thoreau, the American naturalist, take pains to 

 gain their confidence. The water rats, timid enough 

 when any other foot approaches, look with fearless 

 friendship on the gentle angler. At his ease he 

 may watch them perched on a raft of drifted sticks 

 and weeds nibbling the arrowhead with the utmost 

 composure, or swimming about like a miniature 

 colony of beavers. It is cheering to reflect, when 

 they are seen under such circumstances, that al- 

 though the miller may owe them a grudge for 

 undermining the banks of his dam, they are of all 

 animals the most harmless to the farmer. He is 

 too often, however, apt to confound them with the 

 destructive pests of the granary, and (though they 

 are really voles and not rats) to lump all together 

 as vermin, and issue an edict of universal extermina- 

 tion accordingly. What a blessed day will it be 

 for the lower animals when farmers imbibe a taste 

 for natural history ! At dusk may often be dis- 

 cerned down the Beck another innocent creature, 

 the hedgehog, long remorselessly hunted down be- 

 ll c 



