yiii.] 
OF SELBORNE. 
23 
hours ; where, being more exempt from flies, and inhaling the 
coolness of that element, some belly deep, and some only to mid- 
leg, they ruminate and solace themselves from about ten in the 
morning till lour in the afternoon, and then return to their feed- 
ing. During this great proportion of the day they drop much 
dung, in which insects nestle ; and so supply food for the fish, 
which would be poorly subsisted but from this contingency. Thus 
nature, who is a great economist, converts the recreation of one 
animal to the support of another ! Thomson, who was a nice 
observer of natural occurrences, did not let this pleasing cir- 
cumstance escape him. He says, in his Summer," 
" A various group the herds and flocks compose : 
■ — on the grassy bank 
Some ruminating lay ; while others stand 
Half in the flood, and, often bending, sip 
The circling surface." 
Wolmer Pond, so called, I suppose, for eminence sake, is a 
vast lake for this part of the world, containing, in its whole cir- 
cumference, 2,646 yards, or very near a mile and a half The 
length of the north-west and opposite side is about 704 yards, 
and the breadth of the south-west end about 456 yards. This 
measurement, which I caused to be made with good exactness, 
gives an area of about sixty-six acres, exclusive of a large 
irregular arm at the north-east corner, which we did not take 
into the reckoning. 
On the face of this expanse of waters, and perfectly secure 
from fowlers, lie all day long, in the winter season, vast flocks 
of ducks, teals, and wigeons, of various denominations ; where 
they preen and solace and rest themselves, till towards sun- 
set, when they issue forth in little parties (for in their natural 
state they are all birds of the night) to feed in the brooks and 
meadows ; returning again with the dawn of the morning. 
Had this lake an arm or two more, and were it planted round 
with thick covert (for now it is perfectly naked), it might make 
a valuable decoy. 
Yet neither its extent, nor the clearness of its water, nor the 
resort of various and curious fowls, nor its picturesque groups 
