360 Wild Life in a Southern County. 
which even in severe frosts is never frozen. Even 
when the running brook is frozen such little springs 
are free of ice, and so, too, is the streamlet for some 
distance. 
From the bed of the brook proper the reeds are 
gone—they have taken refuge in nooks and corners. 
This is probably accounted for by the periodical 
cleaning out of the brook—not annually, but every 
now and then, in order to prevent the flooding which 
would be caused by the accumulation of mud and sand. 
The roots of the flags seem to withstand this rude 
treatment ; but many other water plants cannot, and 
are consequently only found in places which have not 
been disturbed for many years. 
There is as much difference in ponds as in hedges, 
so far as inhabitants are concerned. Many fields and 
hedges seem comparatively deserted, while others are 
full of birds ; and so of several ponds which do not 
apparently vary much—one is a favourite haunt of 
fish, and another has not got a single fish in it. One 
pond particularly used to attract my attention, because 
it seemed devoid of any kind of life: not even a 
stickleback could be found in it, though they will live 
in the smallest ditches, and this pond was fed by a 
brook in which there were fish. Not even a newt lived 
in it—it was a miniature Dead Sea. Another pond 
was remarkable for innumerable water-snails. When 
the wind blew hard they sometimes lined the lee-shore 
to which they had drifted. 
