356 THE RED DEER OF EX MOOR. 



are running best pace they rarely run more than five 

 or six miles without making such a change of 

 direction as will enable an observant rider, who 

 may be two miles or more behind, to pick up. 



This may seem a somewhat exaggerated statement, 

 but in the crowded part of the season, when hounds 

 run really fast over the open, the tail of the field is 

 frequently two miles behind the pack. 



A pair of field-glasses assist one materially, and 

 those collapsible glasses which go in the pocket are 

 quite good enough to enable anyone to see what 

 hounds are doing up to two or three miles off. 



Terrible tales are sometimes told of the fathomless 

 bogs on Exmoor. These tales are frightfully 

 exaggerated ; there are no fathomless bogs on 

 Exmoor, though there are a number of places which 

 are very soft, and will in a wet season give much 

 trouble if a horse gets into them. The greater 

 portion of the moor is a peaty deposit over a hard 

 bed of stone, the depth of the peat varying from ift. 

 to 3ft., the latter depth occurring only at one or two 

 well-known spots, and there are a few places where 

 the action of springs has caused holes in the rocky 

 bed, and a corresponding thickness of the peaty 

 covering. When the layer of peat is thoroughly 

 saturated with water the deeper portions require care 

 to ride over, because the ease with which they can be 

 traversed depends mainly on the consistency of the 

 surface, which in its turn depends largely on the 

 interlacing and matting -together of the roots of the 



