SANDPIPER AND SPARROW-HAWK. 47 



or less polluted, although the drinking-water is 

 pure, bright, and good. 



It would be well if the same could be said for 

 the rivers, streams, ponds, and brooks. We get 

 away from all this, however, and wander till we 

 are close to the hills that the waters come from 

 which supply all. 



Sandpipers, both species— the common " fiddler " 

 and the far rarer green species — are fond of -hill 

 country, so we shall saunter up this moor-stream, 

 which is of no width, but yet is full of red-speckled 

 trout, to see if we can find one. 



Slowly moving up one of the fairest moorland 

 hollows that to my thinking human eyes ever rested 

 ■ on, we find that even here content does not reign: 

 A woman who has not passed her prime, judging 

 from her looks, tells us, in answer to a few simple 

 questions, that some folk think it grand here; but, 

 added she, " I wish I was out of it all : I am not 

 well, and my poor children are but weakly, ailing 

 little souls. There is little to be seen from one 

 year to another — nor yet to hear, but the moaning 

 of the firs." One feels there was much truth in 

 this ; indeed moorland mists, and exhalation from 



