I will venture to assert that no fairy tales, not even excepting those
of the "Arabian Nights," can surpass in marvel the true life-history of
the mayfly, the frog, the newt, and the dragon-fly, as will be narrated
in the course of these pages. I may go even farther, and assert that
there is no inhabitant of the brook and its banks whose biography and
structure are not full of absorbing interest, and will not occupy the
longest life, if only an attempt be made to study them thoroughly.
An almost typical example of slow-flowing brooks is to be found in the
remarkable channels which intersect the country between Minster and
Sandwich, and which, on the ordnance map, look almost like the threads
of a spider's web. In that flat district, the fields are not divided by
hedges, as in most parts of England, or by stone walls--"dykes," as they
are termed in Ireland--such as are employed in Derbyshire and several
other stony localities, but by channels, which have a strong
individuality of their own.
Even the smallest of these brooks is influenced by the tide, so that at
the two periods of slack water there is no perceptible stream.
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