OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY 21 



of the animal about some plants, just as there is a good 

 deal of the plant about some animals. The brilliant 

 Indian experimenter, Sir J. C. Bose, has shown of 

 recent years that there is much in common between a 

 message passing along a nerve in our arm and a mes- 

 sage travelling along the leaf of the Sensitive Plant; 

 that plants, like animals, may have their suscepti- 

 bility changed by poisoning, by anaesthetics, by fatigue, 

 and by outside circumstances; and that they are 

 refreshed by food and rest. 



As we got above the thick heather and on to the 

 rough ground covered with granite boulders and loose 

 stones, with Bearberry and Crowberry here and there, 

 we skirted the edge of a corrie and looking down saw 

 about a dozen Stags. They were to windward of us 

 and below, so we were able to enjoy the sight. They 

 had not begun to get passionate nor to fight among 

 themselves, and we could see that the antlers were 

 rough with " velvet " the name given to the skin that 

 covers and feeds the antlers as long as they are grow- 

 ing. It is an extraordinary thing this expensive 

 annual growth of bone, which serves for a short time 

 as a weapon and then falls off. 



We sat down by a big boulder of pink granite to 

 watch the Stags, and we could not help noticing how 

 much fine-grained gravel had gradually gathered 

 clean, hard, small-bore gravel, which it was a pleasure 

 to handle. All this had come out of the boulder, which 

 yet seemed hardness itself. What had done the crush- 

 ing ? How had the crumbling come about ? This is 

 a very important question, for there is no doubt that 

 there is a continuous slow wearing down of the moun- 

 tains, and that the hills flow down into the sea. In a 



