COUNTRY LIFE
A Vanished Lake A rather alarming example of the fall of the water-level about the country is in evidence in my neighbourhood. Est lacus : there is a lake where, so far as my memory goes, water has always been plentiful. I have skated spaciously there in very hard frost for a generation or so. Wild duck (some artificially reared) have alwayS abounded ; and' the edge is well clothed in water-loving sedges. A stream flows through it, and close by active springs have fed excellent watercress- beds. Last year the lake began to dry. The process con- tinued this summer, and there was so little water this spring that the young wild duck died. When this happened a `boring was started close by the side of the departed lake. The bore was taken to eighty feet, and as there was still no sign of water the work was stopped. Now it may be that the bore was sunk at an unlucky spot ; but the valley has long been peculiarly full of lively springs, 'which have encouraged quite an active industry in watercress growing. Most of those in two neighbouring valleys have given out ; and the village wiseacres 'at any rate fear, or believe, that the water has sunk interminably. It is curious that the wells on the chalk ridge bounding one side of the valley are not perceptibly lower. The level has been constant for some while past.
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