HUNTING IN THE SNOW 



have often wished for a pair of skis, or even snow- 

 shoes. In places where when the ground is bare 

 you have no hesitation in walking, you may think 

 twice before you tackle them in winter. Spots 

 like Striding Edge on Helvellyn, and Cofa Pike, 

 between Fairfield and St. Sunday Crag, look very 

 different on a wild blustering winter's afternoon 

 from what they appear on a hot day at mid- 

 summer. On the high tops, the wind is often 

 so strong that you are forced to lie down or be 

 blown off the fell, and it drives the particles of 

 snow before it, which cut your face unmercifully. 

 On a fine early spring day, with snow on the hills, 

 and a bright sun overhead, the glare is sometimes 

 acute, almost enough so to cause snow-blindness. 



Hxmting on the high tops in winter, you see 

 little wild life, with the exception of ravens and 

 buzzards, occasional snow buntings, and perhaps 

 a stoat in its white coat and black tail-tip. 

 Ravens often swoop down at foxes, although I 

 have never heard of them really molesting a fox. 

 In the season 1920-1921, I saw two ravens circling 

 round a fox on the sky-line of Pavey Ark, near 

 Langdale Pikes. Hounds had disturbed him, 

 and he was making off to safer quarters. 



On the fells in winter you often see very beautiful 

 snow and ice effects. The snow gets blown by 

 the wind sometimes till it resembles waves of the 

 sea, and strikes curious shapes and patterns where 

 the gale has plastered it against stone walls. On 

 the crags huge icicles form and hang in festoons, 

 to drop with a rattle and smash when a thaw 

 commences. At such a time it is wise to keep a 

 good lookout when standing beneath a crag, as 

 loose stones, and sometimes huge chunks of rock, 

 have a habit of breaking loose from their moorings ; 

 and they whiz down with a very unpleasant 



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