ey not have existed in this
pool?

"At a time almost inconceivably remote, when the hills around were
covered with woods, through which the elk and the bison and the wild cow
strolled, when men were rare throughout the lands and unlike in most
things to the present race--at such a period--and such a period there has
been--I can easily conceive that the afanc-crocodile haunted this pool,
and that when the elk or bison or wild cow came to drink of its waters
the grim beast would occasionally rush forth, and seizing his bellowing
victim, would return with it to the deeps before me to luxuriate at his
ease upon its flesh. And at a time less remote, when the crocodile was
no more, and though the woods still covered the hills, and wild cattle
strolled about, men were more numerous than before, and less unlike the
present race, I can easily conceive this lake to have been the haunt of
the afanc-beaver, that he here built cunningly his house of trees and
clay, and that to this lake the native would come with his net and his
spear to hunt the animal for his precious fur. Probably if the depths of
that pool were searched relics of the crocodile and the beaver might be
found, along with other strange things connected with the periods in
which they respectively lived. Happy were I if for a brief space I could
become a Cingalese that I might swim out far into that pool, dive down
into its deepest part and endeavour to discover any strange things which
beneath its surface may lie." Much in this guise rolled my thoughts as I
lay stretched on the margin of the lake.

Satiated with musing I at last got up and endeavoured to regain the road.
I found it at last, though not without considerable difficulty. I passed
over moors, black and barren, along a dusty road till I came to a valley;
I was now almost choked with dust and thirst, and longed for nothing in
the world so much as for water; suddenly I heard its blessed sound, and
perceived a rivulet on my left hand. It was crossed by two bridges, one
immensely old and terribly dilapidated, the other old enough, but in
better repair--went and drank under the oldest bridge of the two. The
water tasted of the peat of the moors, nevertheless I drank greedily of
it, for one must not be over-delicate upon the moors.

Refreshed with my draught I proceeded briskly on my way, and in a little
time saw a range of white buildings, diverging from the road on the right
hand, the gable of the fir