BROADLAND IN WINTER-TIME 
203 
fishing ? No, we were not, although we had a well-worn 
botanical box which had carried fungi in various parts of the 
three kingdoms, to say nothing of foreign lands, during the last 
quarter of a century, and which looks like a hybrid between an 
angler’s bait-can and a Brobdingnagian sandwich box. We tried 
to explain to our friend that our objects were birds and fungi. 
Had we told him the exact truth we should have said that “ we 
were going to search for the tdeiitospores of the Aiciditim on Orchis 
latifolia, which a gentleman in Germany has recently asserted 
are to be found on Phalaris arundinacea." This explanation reads 
right enough on paper, but m the bumping and thumping of a 
railway carriage would have required a considerable amount of 
elaboration, so we modified matters by saying that we were going 
to gather a plant. What, in all this snow? For at the part of the 
journey where this conversation took place the snow was hall 
a foot deep. We pointed out that we were then between two 
and three hundred feet above the sea level, that the Broads were 
nearly at the sea level, and even if the worst came to the worst 
we should “ dip” in the snow for the plant as Robinson Crusoe 
did in the sea when he over-turned his iron-laden raft in the days 
of our boyhood. Two stations from our destination it snowed so 
hard that you could not see a hundred yards in front of you, while 
on the ground it was ankle deep ; but as the line descended the 
snow ceased to fall and less and less lay upon the ground. 
We ran the gauntlet of the boat-proprietor’s questions as to 
our business; and, having secured a boat, “ poled ” out of the 
“dyke” through the narrow unfrozen channel in midstream, 
until we got fairly on the Broad itself, where both oars could 
be used. One of us rowed while the other shivered on the stern 
sheets covered up by all the greatcoats available. As we glided 
amongst last year’s tall waving reeds, with a clear sky above 
and a bright sun in front, the quiet stillness made us feel as 
if we were in a very paradise of natural beauty. On the shallow 
margin a patch of whitish gray was soon descried ; the stem 
had lost many of the lower leaves, but the palm-like cluster of 
leaves at the top showed us that the plant we were in search 
of would need no “ dipping for.” Before it could be gathered, 
however, we had to ship our oars and w'atch half a dozen coot, 
who were calmly swimming between the clusters of reeds, 
bobbing their heads with each stroke of their feet in true 
cootean style. By the speed with which they swam one would 
think properly webbed feet were quite unnecessary luxuries, 
while the sun shining on their backs made them look as black as 
the proverbial crow. 
The Phalaris was duly examined and found to be abundantly 
flecked with tiny black dots, so a big bundle was carefully 
stowed away in the box for experimental purposes, and on we 
went. 
As we rounded the corner of a reed bed another boat was 
seen approaching us, rowed by a woman, apparently a fenman’s 
