Natural History Rambles: Ponds and Ditches by Mordecai Cubitt Cooke

Detail from cover

From the book...

"It is not easy to define in a few words the area over which our wanderings are intended to extend; this will become more evident from a perusal of the whole work. It may be premised, however, that in commons, marshes, and low districts, there are miles after miles of ditches which have no perceptible current, only varying in height, not with the tides, but only with wet or dry seasons; ditches in which vegetation appears to run wild, three-fourths of the surface being covered with the leaves of aquatic plants, or a green scum, and whose dark waters, impregnated with the decay of plants, have sometimes an unmistakable odour. Such ditches swarm with living creatures too numerous for more than a small portion to come under our notice."