42 RED DEER. 



Next I came to a coombe-head in which 

 ran a streamlet, and at its sides were some 

 small larches in their first green, pleasant 

 to see among the dry dark heather. At 

 this clear spring the deer often drink, and 

 the cover it is hardly a cover, for there 

 are only a few trees is a favourite spot 

 with them to pass the day. There was no 

 stag here in harbour at present ; still, I 

 stayed awhile by the splashing rivulet of 

 water under the green larches between the 

 rocky sides of the coombe. Out in the ex- 

 panse of heather the open distances were 

 oppressive ; here in the hollow, with green 

 to enclose the eye-glance, the solitude was 

 a delight. The deer had been here quite 

 recently, for there was fresh slot, or foot- 

 marks, both of stags and hinds, on a sandy 

 path they used. All the' coombes, the top 

 or beginning of which I had passed, gra- 

 dually deepen as the groove descends the 



