300 WITHIN AN HOUR OF LONDON TOWN. 



No bird-life is to be seen or heard, and I do not 

 wonder at it. Even the rabbits are not to be found 

 here. A little silver sand, slightly discoloured in 

 places by dry, crumbly fir-needles, may be good for 

 their digestive powers, considering what they have 

 to feed on, but it will not fill their stomachs ; so the 

 rabbits avoid living on the belt of the firs where it is 

 impossible to procure green food. One group of firs 

 rises above the others in front of us, different from 

 those we have passed through ; fine trees these are 

 and well shaped. The track we travelled over led 

 up to them. We find that we have been ascending 

 for some time, and on reaching them the matter is 

 plain, these self-sown firs had a considerable extent 

 of sandy loam to flourish in. The trees are clean 

 stemmed, no grey moss is hanging from them, and 

 as the sun is shining warm and bright just here, we 

 go up to have a look round. Directly we reach 

 the top, however, we slide down again ; for under 

 the trees there are small heaps of fir-cones pulled 

 all to pieces, also a lot of the green tassel-shoots 

 from the extreme end of the branches, some of them 

 six and eight inches in length. It looks quite green 

 under the trees, so many here scattered about. I 



