66 A Book of the Snipe. 



blowing a gale from the other side of the hills. 

 It would then be a famous shelter from the 

 wind, though it contains food for nothing but a 

 sheep. And so we go on, until meeting with 

 another brook we decide to follow It down to 

 the place where it nears the entrance to our 

 ** point," the lane by which we first entered the 

 moor. This rivulet has lately asserted its 

 independence by overflowing its banks, and 

 flooding some acres of the level ground below, 

 though two or three little islands of scanty 

 grass stick up forlornly, as if they half re- 

 gretted having refused to yield to the 

 encroaching waters. A small wisp of snipe 

 rises from every one of these spots, very wild, 

 and apparently determined to fly for ever. 

 They are the last we shall see to-day, for a 

 climb over yet another bank, the thirtieth at 

 least during the last two hours, brings us on to 

 the stretch of low heather interspered with 

 gorse over which we walked this morning 

 after issuing from the lane. 



The wintry sun Is rolling down, a great 

 striped ball, in the west, as if to assure us that 



