WILD EX MOOR. 31 



to the coombe yonder, how far to the range of 

 hills beyond which rose higher than the high 

 moors, then to the second range farther still, 

 and to the third dim outline at the horizon ? 



These were the questions which continu- 

 ally arose. They were the only thoughts 

 suggested by so much distance. The eye 

 had nothing to rest on ; it kept travelling 

 farther, and whichever way I turned still 

 there was the same space. It was twenty 

 miles to the white cloud yonder looking 

 through the air, and so it was twenty miles 

 to the ridge, not the farthest, under it. The 

 moor undulated on, now a coombe, now a 

 rise, now pale grey-green where the surface 

 had been burnt, and then dark where the 

 heather was high ; the moor undulated on, 

 and it was twenty miles to the ridge and 

 twenty to the cloud, and there was nothing 

 between me and the cloud and the hill. A 

 noise of thunder came, weary and travelling 



