FROM WEIR TO MILL. 71 



one can explain, for the roads and paths, as also 

 the meadow tracks, are well used by people all 

 the year round ; yet in the grey of the morning, 

 or after the sun has gone down, if you know 

 where to stand and how to keep quiet, three of 

 our most astute animals, the fox, the otter, and 

 at rare seasons the badger, will pass within a few 

 yards of you. 



And these creatures seem ever ready to take 

 advantage of any alteration made by man for their 

 benefit, though it may have been made all un- 

 wittingly by him. They locate here, and they will 

 not leave their surroundings. When they are forced, 

 however, by various circumstances over which they 

 have not the least control, to shift their quarters, 

 they adapt their ways of living to the places they 

 frequent, not from choice but from necessity. 



For three months, early in the morning and late 

 in the evening, have I lately visited that run of 

 the river Mole from weir to mill, just to get some 

 fresh facts about the wild things living there. One 

 day in coming along, after a heavy gale, I was 

 greeted by " Ah, he's down at last ; 'twas the big- 

 gest beech on this 'ere place. That 'ere last flood 



