ulders, I threw myself on his tail, and by keeping it down to
the sand, prevented him from kicking up another dust. He was finally
conveyed to the canoe, and then to the place where we had suspended our
hammocks. There I cut his throat; and after breakfast was over,
commenced the dissection."

After his fourth journey Waterton occasionally travelled on the
Continent, but for the most part resided at Walton Hall. In the park he
made the observations afterwards published as "Essays on Natural
History," in three series, and since reprinted, with his Life and
Letters, by Messrs. Warne and Co.

Walton Hall is situated on an island surrounded by its ancient moat, a
lake of about five-and-twenty acres in extent. From the shores of the
lake the land rises; parts of the slope, and nearly all the highest part,
being covered with wood.

In one wood there was a large heronry, in another a rookery. Several
hollow trees were haunted by owls, in the summer goat-suckers were always
to be seen in the evening flying about two oaks on the hill. At one end
of the lake in summer the kingfisher might be watched fishing, and
throughout the year herons waded round its shores picking up fresh-water
mussels, or stood motionless for hours, watching for fish. In winter,
when the lake was frozen, three or four hundred wild duck, with teal and
pochards, rested on it all day, and flew away at night to feed; while
widgeons fed by day on its shores. Coots and water-hens used to come
close to the windows and pick up food put out for them. The Squire built
a wall nine feet high all round his park, and he used laughingly to say
that he paid for it with the cost of the wine which he did not drink
after dinner.

A more delightful home for a naturalist could not have been. No shot was
ever fired within the park wall, and every year more birds came.
Waterton used often to quote the lines:--

"No bird that haunts my valley free
To slaughter I condemn;
Taught by the Power that pities me,
I learn to pity them;"

and each new-comer added to his happiness. In his latter days the
household usually consisted of the Squire, as he was always called, and
of his two sisters-in-law, for he had lost his wife soon after his
marriage in 1829. He breakfasted at eight, dined in the middle of the
day, and drank tea in the evening. He went to bed early, and slept upon
the bare floor, with a block of wood for his pillow. He rose for th