Surefooted Sheep. 251 
upon the sward, dotted the slopes: it was the bird’s- 
foot lotus growing so thickly as to overpower the 
grass. Mushrooms nestle here and there: those that 
‘grow in the open, far from hedge and tree, are small, 
and the gills of a more delicate salmon colour. 
Under the elms yonder a much larger variety may be 
found, which, though edible, are coarser. 
Where a part of the lake comes up to the field is 
a long-disused quarry, whose precipices facethe water 
like a cliff. Thin grasses have grown over the exca- 
vations below: the thistles and nettles have covered 
the heaps of rubbish thrown aside. The steep inac- 
ccessible walls of hardened sand are green with minute 
vegetation. Along the edge above runs a shallow 
red-brown band—it is the soil which nourishes the 
roots of the grasses of the field: beneath it comes 
small detached stones in sand; these fall out, loosened 
by the weather, and roll down the precipice. Then, 
still deeper, the sand hardens almost into stone, and 
finally comes the stone itself; but before the workmen 
could get out more than a thin layer they reached 
the level of the water in the lake, which came in on 
them, slowly forming pools. 
These are now bordered by aquatic grasses, and 
from their depths every now and then the newts 
come up to the surface. In the sand precipices are 
small round holes worked out by the martins—there 
must be scores of them. Where narrow terraces 
afford access to four-footed creatures, the rabbits, too, 
