76 THE OPEN AIR. 



the extremity. These florets were cream-coloured, so 

 that it looked like a new species of gorse. On gather- 

 ing it to examine the thick-set florets, it was found 

 that a slender runner or creeper had been torn up with 

 it. Like a thread the creeper had wound itself round 

 and round the furze, buried in and hidden by the 

 prickles, and it was this creeper that bore the white 

 or cream-florets. It was tied round- as tightly as 

 thread could be, so that the florets seemed to start 

 from the stem, deceiving the eye at first. In some 

 places this parasite plant had grown up the heath and 

 strangled it, so that the tips turned brown and died. 

 The runners extended in every direction across the 

 ground, like those of strawberries. One creeper had 

 climbed up a bennet, or seeding grass-stalk, binding 

 the stalk and a blade of the grass together, and flower- 

 ing there. On the ground there were patches of grey 

 lichen; many of the pillar -like stems were crowned 

 with a red top. Under a small boulder stone there 

 was an ants' nest. These boulders, or, as they are 

 called locally, "bowlers," were scattered about the 

 heath. Many of the lesser stones were spotted with 

 dark dots of lichen, not unlike a toad. 

 Thoughtlessly turning over a boulder about nine 

 inches square, lo! there was subject enough for 

 thinking underneath it a subject that has been 

 thought about many thousand years; for this piece 

 of rock had formed the roof of an ants' nest. The 

 stone had sunk three inches deep into the dry soil 

 of sand and peaty mould, and in the floor of the hole 

 the ants had worked out their excavations, which 

 resembled an outline map. The largest excavation 



