FEI.I. HUNTING 



but when the wind is powerful enough to knock 

 you over hke a ninepin and you have to lie or 

 fall down and hang on by your eyelids, it be- 

 comes rather too much of a good thing. Nor is 

 this an exaggeration, for on many occasions 

 we have been obhged to lie down to avoid being 

 blown over the edge of the fell. The gale stops 

 your breath, and whips you about anyhow, so 

 that it is the greatest relief to reach the shelter 

 of a wall or pile of boulders. 



If in summer you follow a wall such as that 

 which leads across the top of the High Street 

 range you will find for a distance of a hundred 

 yards on each side of it pieces of stone which have 

 been blown about during the winter gales. Many 

 of these stones are quite sizeable and give an idea 

 of the power of the wind which carried them. 

 When you are hunting on a windy day you will 

 probably hear people say that the fox will not 

 face the gale on the top. Don't you believe them, 

 however, for if a fox makes up his mind to reach 

 a certain spot no wind which blows in this country 

 is going to stop him. A wind which will lay a 

 human being fiat has little or no effect on a fox, 

 because the latter stands only a few inches above 

 ground and thus offers a small surface for the 

 wind to act on. Wind, in addition to making 

 travelling difficult, obliterates all sound of hounds, 

 and if anything tends to make a man use worse 

 language than a gale on the tops we have yet to 

 hear it. Although wind is bad enough mist is 

 even worse, for when enveloped by it you cannot 

 see more than a few yards in front. Still we 

 have often thought that a quiet misty day is less 

 trying than a clear day with a gale blowing. You 

 can't see far with your eyes watering, and you can 

 hear nothing for the shriek of the blast, so you 



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