A CHANGE OF ASPECT. "43 



on pretty well ; but, as I advanced, it got tliicker and 

 higher, gradually reaching above mj head. Still I 

 scrambled on, thinking I should speedily emerge on the 

 open country. My dogs followed, liking it as little as 

 myself. After many tumbles I sat down. " Bad work 

 this. Belle," said I ; and she looked an expressive " Bad 

 enough." The furze was far above my head, and yet 

 too weak to climb, and so thick as to be most difficult to 

 work through. After about a mile I was nearly done ; and 

 had I not had my bag, which aftbrded me a drop of brandy 

 and a bit of meat, I believe I must have passed the night 

 there, which would not have been to my mind, for the furze 

 was by no means so soft as feathers. But, after so splicing 

 the mainbrace, I took a fresh start, and at last reached 

 the outside, and was never better pleased with the green 

 fields. On surveying the place, I found the field was not 

 more than half a mile across, but I had been beating about 

 it in all ways, like the sailors after Ariel. 



Knowledge of the country is also especially valuable with 

 respect to the game. In a well-gamed country you may find 

 game almost anywhere ; but in Britanny they are to be 

 found only in certain spots. Then appears the difference 

 between the good sportsman and the ordinary one. The one 

 finds his eight or ten coveys a day, refinding them again and 

 again, and getting plenty of sport ; the other gets a chance 

 shot at a covey or two, which goes he knows not where ; and 

 returns fagged, with a flabby bag, declaring that there is 

 nothing in the country but bogs and briars. Some expe- 

 rience, and acquaintance with the habits of game enables the 

 sportsman to discover with tolerable accuracy their where- 



