"04 Wild Life in a Southern County 



Where a part of the lake comes up to the field is a long- 

 disused quarry, whose precipices face the water like a cliff- 

 Thin grasses have grown over the excavations below : the 

 thistles and nettles have covered the heaps of rubbish 

 thrown aside. The steep inaccessible 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 

 come 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, have dug out larger caves ; some of them 

 rise upwards, and open on the field above, several yards 

 from the edge of the cliff. The sheep sometimes climb up 

 by these ledges ; they are much more active than they 

 appear to be, and give the impression that in their native 

 state they must have rivalled the goats. The lambs play 

 about in dangerous-looking places without injury : the only 

 risk seems to be of their coming unexpectedly on the cliff 

 from above ; if they begin from below they are safe. A 

 wood-pigeon may frequently be found in the quarry — some- 

 times in the pits, sometimes on the ledges high up — and 

 the goldfinches visit it for the abundant thistledown. 



Between the excavated hollow and the lake there is bat 



