WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 45 



Therefore, if these hills were once clothed with forest, 

 as previously suggested, it appears possible that the 

 primitive inhabitants, after all, may have carried on 

 their agriculture with less difficulty, and have been 

 able to store up water in their camps with greater ease 

 than would be the case at present. This may explain 

 the traces of primeval cultivation to be seen here on 

 the barest, bleakest, and most unpromising hillsides. 

 Such traces may be discovered at intervals all along 

 the slope, on the summit, and near the foot of the 

 down at the rear of the entrenchment. 



It is easy to pass almost over them without observing 

 the nearly obliterated marks the faint lines left on 

 the surface by the implements of men in the days 

 when the first Caesar was yet a living memory. These 

 marks are like some of the little-used paths which 

 traverse the hills. If you look a long way in front you 

 can see them tolerably distinctly, but under your feet 

 they are invisible, the turf being only so slightly worn 

 by wayfarers. So, to find the signs of ancient fields, 

 look for them from a distance as you approach along 

 the slope ; then you will see squares and parallelo- 

 grams dimly defined upon the sward by slightly raised 

 and narrow banks, green with the grass that has 

 grown over them for so many centuries. 



They have the appearance sometimes of shallow 

 terraces raised one above the other, rising with the 

 slope of the down. This terrace formation is perhaps 

 occasionally artificial ; but in some cases, I think, the 

 natural conformation of the ground has been taken 



