To soften Man with song, that he might gain
Sweet sympathy and healing from the strain.)

They told me Pan was dead, and I, who love
The brown, sweet earth below and sky above,
And
green of summer trees, and dance of leaves
In flood of sunshine, and the cloud which weaves
Long, shifting shadows 'mong the sheeny corn;
Who love to hear the lark's dear carol borne
Down from the dazzling light which floods the day,
To gladden the inner soul, and fright away
What's there of care and pain; who, in a word,
Love Nature dearly, and would love her Lord
The more through her, grieved her interpreter-
Great Pan was but a myth, and dead to her.

So musing and so sorrowing, down the stream
I floated, while the misty weather-gleam
Grew golden, and the delicate pearly green
Of quiet sunset barred the western sheen.
Between the banks all bright with marigold

And starlike daisies, meadow-sweet, and manifold
Such odorous flowers, and fringed with pendent trees
That kissed the quiet wave and sang low lullabies,
Stirred by soft breezes-my light boat drew on

With motion gentle as a floating swan,

Till in a quiet cove she drove aground

Beneath the silvering willows.

All around

The quiet peace of evening fell, and sound
Was only half a sound, that more profound
The silence made. The endless monotone
Of gnats that danced in level lanes of light
Part of the silence seemed. The cushat's moan
From distant coppice saddened the coming night.
The while the river o'er its shallows ran
I lay and thought me of the great god Pan,
And through my musings ran a vague regret,
A longing which my inner soul did fret
(As seeming wrong), that all the pulsing life
And varied beauty with which earth was rife
Had no alive and outward bodiment
Wherewith the soul in converse reverent
Might hold commune: a being set between
Man and his Maker.

As the yellow sheen

Died out of the West, and from the depth of blue

Shone faint white glimmerings where the stars hung

through,

I heard a low, clear strain come up the vale;

As when in April nights the nightingale
Rehearses his love-song, but through it ran
A rhythm so exceeding sweet that Pan
Alone could be the player. No halt or flaw

Its beauty marred. Then suddenly I saw
The god, across the stream, amid the sedge
And misty wreaths along the river's edge,
And whether he spoke, or whether a subtle sense
'Twixt him and me made an intelligence

I know not, but there came from him to me—
"If I am dead, thy God is near to thee;
There needs no other mediator than

The one He gave,—at once a God and Man;
Look thou within thyself, perchance the link
That's missing has been broke by thee. Yet think,

If so thou wilt, I am not dead, but merged

In one I too must love."

Then surged

Out from the West a sudden wind which tossed

The branches in the wood, and so was lost

At once the silence and the song. I lay

As one awaked, and watched the misty cloud
Enclose the starlit meadow in its shroud,

Then took the oars, and silent rowed away.

V.

SCOULTON GULLERY

A SOMEWHAT similar instinct to that which compels the salmon to leave the salt water of the sea, and ascend the rivers and streams, to deposit its spawn, would appear to lead the black-headed gull (Larus ridibundus) from the sea-shore and cliffs, which one would naturally suppose to be its proper habitat, to the inland lakes and meres, where it breeds. The change is not less great in the bird than it is in the fish-from sea insects, shell-fish, and odds and ends of salted articles of food, to in the case of the salmon fresh-water insects and worms, and in the case of the gull to land insects, slugs, worms, and other the dainty dishes of inland birds. But the salmon affect many of our fresh-water rivers; the gulls have only a few favourite breedingplaces, where, however, they breed in enormous num

bers. Scoulton Mere, in Norfolk, is perhaps the chief of these, and is a sight no one who journeys in its neighbourhood should miss. It is situate near Hingham, and is twenty-eight miles from the sea. In that county of lakes, it may be interesting to notice the difference in the designations of its numerous sheets of water. The majority are called "Broads," a term peculiar to Norfolk. The others of any size are called "Meres." The latter have no communication with any rivers, but are hollows in the surface, caused, so geologists tell us, by erosion, and supplied by springs. The Broads are always in intimate connection with the slow running rivers of that county-the Yare, the Bure, and the Waveney. At one time the whole of the Broad district must have been under water, as is evidenced by its flat, marshy character. As the years rolled on, the waters subsided, the hollows silted up, as they are doing year by year now, with reeds and other aquatic vegetation, which, decaying, helped to fill up the lakes, until marsh took the place of water, and after drainage, hard, firm land the place of marsh. The remaining waters, shallow and broad, took the name of “Broads."

The black or brown patch on the head, from which the name of the gull is derived, appears only during the breeding season, and is darkest when first as