BRITISH BIRDS. 121 



regatta upon it (June 14, 1842), from the original oil-painting by Bar wick, 

 now in my possession, is of interest. This was done from sketches taken on 

 the spot, and is an exact representation of the scene, on the site of which 

 nothing but corn-fields at present exists, as the mere was drained in 1851. 

 A violent thunder-storm came on while the regatta was in progress ; and the 

 provisions were floated away ; the man in the canoe was upset, and covered 

 himself with his boat for shelter. 



On another occasion thousands of persons were skating upon the mere : 

 the ice was perfectly transparent and smooth, and the fish could be seen. The 

 pike were hunted down, and, holes being cut, were caught by hand. 



I have a very old painting, on oak panel, of a great pike, with an inscrip- 

 tion saying that his weight was 62 lbs., and that he was caught in Whittlesea 

 Mere. It was much dilapidated when I first had it. This water is men- 

 tioned in ' Domesday,' and had a reed-shore a quarter of a mile deep. Within 

 the memory of living persons, 19^ brace of Snipe have been killed in one day, 

 from 1 6 to 20 Coots at one shot, from 7 to 1 Wild Ducks, and three bushels 

 of Starlings — these latter to protect the reeds. It would almost seem as if 

 the ghost of the departed mere again flits before the eye of the Fenlander, as 

 in the days of his fathers, the fen-slodgers ; and the Huntingdonshire pea- 

 sants may see in the mirage the restoration of a long- vanished time ; while a 

 deception of vision induces them to reconstruct the history of the forgotten 

 past. 



In ' Nature,' July 3, 1873, appeared an account of a mirage in the Fens, 

 which took place on Thursday, May 29, previously. A person standing " on 

 the parapet of the bridge of the March and Spalding Railway, to view the 

 Fens, observed a beautiful lake spread out a few miles distant. The illusory 

 waters were of a bluish grey colour, and being apparently raised from the 

 level, presented the perspective of a mere of considerable breadth. Islands 

 were dotted here and there." . . " The mirage was stretched out from Eastern 

 Fen over Prior's Fen, to the west of Thorney, ^. e. three or four miles. It 

 was 11 o'clock." ... "A similar phenomenon was witnessed from another 



