SILENCE AND MUSIC 161 



perfectly round flints with a hollow inside were 

 quite common on the downs : that if I wanted any 

 I could find a dozen, or twenty, or forty any day. 

 It surprised him, he said, to hear that round flints 

 were so common, as he had never seen but that 

 one. Then he tried to introduce other topics, and, 

 snubbed again, he at last left me and went after his 

 companions. Meanwhile they had been steadily walk- 

 ing on, and when he at last overtook them they were 

 a quarter of a mile from me. On catching them up 

 he exclaimed " I say ! " to call attention to something 

 he wished to tell them, and I listened. " The other 

 day," he said, " that man was a naturahst ; to-day he 

 is a geologist ! " 



It surprised me to hear him use such words, and 

 show so perfect a knowledge of their right meaning ; 

 but it amazed me that I had been able to hear them 

 distinctly at that great distance. It was a new 

 experience, and produced a feeling that I had somehow, 

 without noticing it at the time, been re-made and 

 endowed with a new set of senses infinitely better 

 than the old ones. The tramps, unaccustomed to the 

 hills, of course had no idea of the distance their voices 

 carried, or they would not have talked about keeping 

 their eyes on me and hiding their parcels, &c., when 

 they first saw me. I noticed subsequently that low- 

 land people generally spoke a great deal louder than 

 was necessary on the downs. They were accustomed 



to a denser and noisier atmosphere, and were like 



L 



