RED DEER LAND. 19 



One owner encloses a piece one year, 

 another the next ; and thus Exmoor is 

 nibbled at. The circle slowly spreads, but 

 so slowly as to make no apparent impres- 

 sion ; some fields, too, have fallen back 

 to rushes. When the first slope above 

 the Exe has been climbed, when the way- 

 farer has got out of the deep valley, he 

 comes at once to the moor, to heather 

 and whortleberry. There are sheep and 

 bullocks in the fields, but the whistle of 

 the curlew true sign of the wilderness 

 is heard among them. From the inhabited 

 places Exmoor is nibbled at, but is not 

 affected, any more than the drainage of fens 

 straitens the sea. 



The boundless heather, which looks dark 

 in spring and early summer, at first sight 

 seems the only growth of the endless 

 moors. Among it, on closer examination, 

 will be found the light-green whortleberry 



