the willows, tramping them down by main force, till I came to a wide
stream of water, three inches deep, languidly creeping along over a
bottom of sleek mud. My arrival produced a great commotion. A huge green
bull-frog uttered an indignant croak, and jumped off the bank with a
loud splash: his webbed feet twinkled above the surface, as he jerked
them energetically upward, and I could see him ensconcing himself in
the unresisting slime at the bottom, whence several large air bubbles
struggled lazily to the top. Some little spotted frogs instantly
followed the patriarch's example; and then three turtles, not larger
than a dollar, tumbled themselves off a broad "lily pad," where they had
been reposing. At the same time a snake, gayly striped with black and
yellow, glided out from the bank, and writhed across to the other side;
and a small stagnant pool into which my foot had inadvertently pushed a
stone was instantly alive with a congregation of black tadpoles.

"Any chance for a bath, where you are?" called out Shaw, from a
distance.

The answer was not encouraging. I retreated through the willows, and
rejoining my companion, we proceeded to push our researches in company.
Not far on the right, a rising ground, covered with trees and bushes,
seemed to sink down abruptly to the water, and give hope of better
success; so toward this we directed our steps. When we reached the place
we found it no easy matter to get along between the hill and the water,
impeded as we were by a growth of stiff, obstinate young birch-trees,
laced together by grapevines. In the twilight, we now and then, to
support ourselves, snatched at the touch-me-not stem of some ancient
sweet-brier. Shaw, who was in advance, suddenly uttered a somewhat
emphatic monosyllable; and looking up I saw him with one hand grasping a
sapling, and one foot immersed in the water, from which he had forgotten
to withdraw it, his whole attention being engaged in contemplating the
movements of a water-snake, about five feet long, curiously checkered
with black and green, who was deliberately swimming across the pool.
There being no stick or stone at hand to pelt him with, we looked at him
for a time in silent disgust; and then pushed forward. Our perseverence
was at last rewarded; for several rods farther on, we emerged upon a
little level grassy nook among the brushwood, and by an extraordinary
dispensation of fortune, the weeds and floating sticks, which elsewhere
co