TIIE FERN PARADISE. 



Devonian cliarm, intermingle in rich and varying 

 proportions, flinging their characteristic grace 

 over the whole. As we advance, however, culti- 

 vation becomes sparse and sparser still. The 

 heights become too steep for anything but their 

 own wild growth. There is, however, even nntil 

 the unbroken moor is reached, a grand inter- 

 mingling of wooded and barren steeps, of hilly 

 corn fields, and heather and Fern-covered heights. 

 Then we pause at the extremity of the branch 

 line to Moretonhampstead. 



Now begins the moorland walk, extending eway 

 for some three or four miles to Fingie Bridge, 

 Along the entire distance there is spread out for 

 the Fern-lover a continual feast. For a short 

 way the path winds by the side of a meadow; 

 then crosses, at the end of a small thicket, a 

 Fern-fringed brook. Anon it ascends a steep 

 upland, and then for two miles it takes a course 

 which includes all the wild and varied charac- 

 teristics of moorland scenery. Now the inter- 

 chained peaks of Dartmoor carry the eye away 

 over a wide stretch of country, the vividly- 

 coloured landscape losing in freshness, but losing 



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