MOUNTAIN AND MOORLAND 

 CHAPTER I 



OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY 



" All things flow " The bracken's encroachments Cuckoo-spit 

 Cuckoos The Wheatear A Heather Spider The Rock Rose- 

 Weathering The summit Lichens Plant zones Homeward. 



WE begin our study of Mountain and Moorland with 

 a walk we had one summer day in the West Highlands, 

 for this plunges us into the middle of things, and it may 

 serve better than a formal introduction to illustrate 

 the problems we have to discuss. 



We were wakened by skylarks soon after sunrise, 

 and everything seemed new in the early morning light. 

 It is partly, we suppose, that the sun's rays are at first 

 low and horizontal, they show things "in a new light." 

 Perhaps there is something in the excitement of get- 

 ting up a good deal earlier than usual. In any case 

 the countryside seemed transfigured that morning, and 

 we got a surprise when we opened the door. For 

 there on the step, looking at us out of big moist eyes, 

 was a mother Red Deer in other words, a Hind. At 

 this time of year the Stags or males are on the heights ; 

 the Hinds and the Fawns feed in the valleys. We sup- 

 pose she had come to the door to lick a dish that the 

 ducks and hens got scraps from, for Red Deer are 

 fond of salt; or perhaps she had been trespassing in 



