HEATHLANDS. 123 



gold is visible for a moment as he hastens away the 

 first bird, except the wood-pigeons, seen for an hour, 

 yet there are miles of firs around. After a time the 

 ground rises again, the tall firs cease, but are suc- 

 ceeded by younger firs. These are more pleasant 

 because they do not exclude the sky. The sunshine 

 lights the path, and the summer blue extends above. 

 The fern, too, ceases, and the white sand is now 

 concealed by heath, with here and there a dash of 

 colour. Furze chats call, and flit to and fro; the 

 hum of bees is heard once more there was not 

 one under the vacant shadow; and swallows pass 

 overhead. 



At last emerging from the firs the open slope is 

 covered with heath only, but heath growing so 

 thickly that even the narrow footpaths are hidden 

 by the overhanging bushes of it. Some small bushes 

 of furze here and there are dead and dry, but every 

 prickly point appears perfect ; when struck with the 

 walking-stick the bush crumbles to pieces. Beneath 

 and amid the heath what seems a species of lichen 

 grows so profusely as to give a grey undertone. In 

 places it supplants the heath, the ground is concealed 

 by lichen only, which crunches under the foot like 

 hoar-frost. Each piece is branched not unlike a 

 stag's antlers; gather a handful and it crumbles to 

 pieces in the fingers, dry and brittle. 



A quarry for sand has been dug down some eight 

 or ten feet, so that standing in it nothing else is 

 visible. This steep scarp shows the strata, yellow 

 sand streaked with thin brown layers ; at the top it is 

 fringed with heath in full flower, bunches of purple 



