NATURAL HISTOKY OF SELBOENE. 21 
tench, eels, and perch : but the fish do not thrive well, because the 
water is hungry, and the bottoms are a naked sand. 
A circumstance respecting these ponds, though by no means peculiar 
to them, I cannot pass over in silence ; and that is, that instinct by 
which in summer all the kine, whether oxen, cows, calves, or heifers, 
retire constantly to the water during the hotter 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 four in the afternoon, 
and then return to their feeding. 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 circumstance escape ^ 
him. He says, in his Summer, 
"A various group the herds and flocks compose ; 
on the grassy bank 
Some ruminating lie ; 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 circumference, 2646 
yards, or very near a mile and an 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. 
TEAL AND WIDGEON. 
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, 
