WILD EXMOOR. 33 



hind another, and there is a third in front. 

 I have crossed several boggy places, and 

 passed many turf-ponds, and through acres 

 of cotton-grass, waving like little white flags 

 in the wind, and that is all; no hedges, 

 no trees, no bushes even to mark progress 

 by, not so much as a tall fern. 



The low boom of thunder comes again 

 out of the infinity of space, reminding me 

 of the profundity around, but I will not 

 look I will not let my glance travel farther 

 than what I judge must be half a mile or 

 so ahead. By an effort I check it there, 

 and will not look farther. I make an en- 

 closure about me to shut out the vastness. 

 In the shadowless open the sun's heat over- 

 powers the wind, and renders movement 

 laborious over the uneven ground. At last 

 there is a hollow ; it is the top, the shallow 

 upper end of a coombe, which deepens as 



it descends into a valley. A spring rises 



c 



