28 RED DEER. 



weather, crack if stepped on. I wonder how 

 far I have walked ; the undulation whence I 

 started has long disappeared behind 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 flails 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 enclosure about me to 

 shut out the vastness. In the shadowless 

 open the sun's heat overpowers 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 coombc, which 

 deepens as it descends into a valley. A spring 



