252 Poachers and Poaching. 



unknown became as active as an invaded ant- 

 hill. Stalwart miners came there with "kit' 1 

 and tools, men skilled in their work, who had 

 disembowelled the mountains of Cumberland 

 and Cornwall. These men occupied the wooden 

 "shanties" that had been hastilv erected for 



J 



them ; and, as they took the sun among the birch 

 and hazel bushes on Sundays, dreamt over the 

 dreams of the sanguine proprietors. 



It were well, however, to draw a veil over all 

 subsequent proceedings. Nature, for her part, 

 has already done so. The torn and abraded 

 hill-sides have lost their harsh outlines, and a 

 veil of kindly mantling green has spread itself 

 over all. True, as in other similar enterprises, 

 there are still traces of the useless essay the 

 dull prosaic record of half-finished ditches, pur- 

 poseless shafts, untenable pits, abandoned engines, 

 and meaningless disruptions of the soil upon the 

 mountain and a railway. 



This last was one of the details of the original 

 enterprise, and cost ^100,000. It is still in 

 operation, runs for no one in particular, and but 

 for few folk in general. Its way lies along a 

 beautiful valley hemmed in by the mountains 

 where the line ends. There is no way out 

 of the vale except by walking over the hills, 

 and only a few straggling tourists ever invade it. 

 We take the train at its junction with an insig- 

 nificant loop-line, and accompany it to its desti- 



