PADDLING.

Lake County Press, Issue 1066, 28 May 1903, Page 6

PADDLING.

There are many prejudices which cling to our minds long ;ifter they have been proved to bo baseless. Who would have thought that it would take a letter to the grave arid reverend " Lancet " to plead for paddling as not only a delightful but healthy recitation f#\ our children ? Yet it would Been that the British paient, led on by certain members of thu medical piofcssion, i* induced sometimes Jo forbid the cool laiing of l)ttie legs in the incoming tide on the ground that it " drives the blood to the lit«ad." "What 9 conspiracy ! It is the old tale of confusion of cause and effect. Were it not, indeed. that wo know that in every profession the '" fuddy " class is to he found, we might be, led to despise the medical profession for fur nishing such a prejudice woithy of the Middle Ages,when washing and bathing were deemed superfluous, and productive of like dangerous " humours." We remember, too, •ays the " Globe," that the same genus has croaked to us of the evils of bicycling; but we take no heed of these croakers and look to the common, manly sense of the majority of our medical men to support both the-for-mer and the latter delights*. It is pleasing to uotice that the letter alluded to above ig from one of the sensible suit who wishes to do the children a " good turn," and straightway deals the prejudice the koock-dowu blow which is bred of practical expet irtice. The writer of theno line*, being both medical and pateuta!, and having the opportunity of a like practical experience, herewith n ndenj Ins unqualified suppoit to the merry host* of paddlers, who might lightly oiy to the faddists, '' No. a thousand times. Ho ! You may give us powders, ami put us to bed all too early ; all that we will bear, but vou must. not. you shall not, take away our paddling !*' The truth is. paddling is a safeguard against sunstroke, while the illnesses classed under thoso which " diive the blood to the head '* are mostly due to digestive disordeis, and rarely to paddling. Now, there are two kinds of paddlers, those who paddle in streams and rivers, and those who go down to the sea to paddle. Of both kiuds have we been. And, first, thcie are few summer delight sweeter than to wade on the gritty gravels shining clean and yellow through the green tresses of the waterweed, which wave tremulously in the current of the flowing biooka, while against thu intruding feet and legs beat thr. hasty flick of little fishes' tails, stickleback or minnow. We lift the larger water-worn bouldcis to search for the grim bull-necked miller's thumb or the slippery lamprey, whose sue tioii appal at us is to persistent in its clutch. Mysterious seem the movements of the cad dis-lly larva, which, lictor-like, among the denizens of fresh whlci beats its fasces about the edges 'of the little bays and eddies wheie decaying sticks and leaves and little shells collect. All the time through the alders the sunshine breaks in slants and patches upon the shining water, sliding to the sea, now smoothly over the dark, deep pools, now turl.ulently.over snag and boulder. As we descend the stream, before us shoots the brilliant king-fisher, a gleam, an arrow-flight of brightest blue; or, as we search among the over hanging willows, the sitting ring-ousel flies staitlcd from its nest, a rarer bird than the merry dipper who hawks in front of us from stone to stone. On the banks are piled masses of the willow-herb stately and purple with bloom, flanked with great burdock leaves and glossy wild garlic. Here the dainty demoiselles in thousands poise upon' the leavesspieading the gauzy network of their wings above their azure bodies; or from bank to bank thu great green and black diagon fly dashes after sorno luckless insect, elnshing its great wings about. Quite still upon its beaten run, uodor the bank, crouches the dark-brown water-vole, ready at our splashing to slip into the water, leaving only widening rings upon the surface of the limpid pool. Such were the sights we used to see in tho golden days of youth: aud such are the memories. But the sea, the far-rolling sea, is the chief delight of hosts of paddlers. great and small. The brook or the river we can look across; not so the giest sea, whose stieteh is boundless and full of mystery,who seems to mighty to little minds. On rocky shores endless delights lie in the deep salt, pools left by the depaitiug tide among the rocks. In these the fronds and bladders of the sea-wc-eds hing in graceful ease, shapely and brown. How wo plucked at their slippery stems and found them hard to pull! How disappointing in their flabbiness when taken from their native brine! Among them lie luscious sea anemones ti mptiug little hands to gather them for Ihe sake of their rich colours, green and purple and red. Before the hot touch of little fingers back the delicate fringes shrink, slippery and elusive. Often, too. we feaied to put out feet into the cool depths, lest the resentful crab should lay hold of invading toes. How wc wondere*! that the star-fish could mote with its orange lays, and why so often it should lie deal upon the rocks! Or, if the paddler wades on saudy shore*., other delights are found in digging deep trenches round huge castles, or iu tunnelling deep and far. Then, as the tide comes in apace and slowly fills (he trenches, the brown-legged paddlers. driven back fiom stronghold to stronghold, watch the destruc tion of their handiwork. On such cstuaii»s as those of the Cheshire Dee long paddling walks on the edge of the ebbing tide are fall of yet another charm. We have thus followed the shrimp dredgers over pools and gutters across the banks, whence the mussels and cockles are raked.