BY WAY OF APPENDIX. 
203 
A striking instance of this tameness and stupidly 
acquiescent spirit in people generally was wit- 
nessed during the intensely severe frosts of the 
early part of the present winter (1892-93), when 
incalculable numbers of sea-birds were driven by 
hunger and cold into bays and inland waters. At 
this time thousands of gulls made their appearance 
in the Thames, but no sooner did they arrive than 
those who possessed guns and licences to shoot began 
to slaughter them. The police interfered, and some 
of these sportsmen were brought before the magi- 
strates and fined for the offence of discharging guns 
to the public danger. For upwards of a fortnight 
after the shooting had been put a stop to, the gulls 
continued to frequent the river in large numbers, 
and were perhaps most numerous from London 
Bridge to Battersea, and during this time they 
were watched every day by thousands of Londoners 
with keen interest and pleasure. The river here, 
flowing through the very centre and heart of the 
greatest city of the world, forms at all hours and 
at all seasons of the year a noble and magnificent 
sight ; to my eyes it never looked more beautiful 
and wonderful than during those intensely cold 
days of January, when there was nothing that one 
could call a mist in the chilly motionless atmo- 
sphere, but only a faint haze, a pallor as of im- 
palpable frost, which made the heavens seem more 
