14 WOODLAND CREATURES 



that tumble over moss-grown stones and boulders 

 at the bottom of deep dark dingles, where few 

 but the wild creatures ever come. In the very 

 heart and centre of the wood, where the big oaks 

 seem to grow taller and stronger than elsewhere, 

 where the dingle is deeper and darker than ever, 

 the badgers have their headquarters. It is a 

 lonely spot, the dingle, it might almost be called 

 a gorge, is clothed with a thick growth of brambles, 

 bushes, and big trees. Oak, ash, and many 

 dark yews cling to its steep sides, which in places 

 fall sheer to the torrent below, where the rocks 

 are clothed with mosses and green liverworts, 

 and over which only the dipper, the heron, and 

 the otter find their way. The last named only 

 comes now and again, for the trout in the brook 

 are very small, though beautiful little fish, daintily 

 spotted with red and black. 



The greatest disturbance this lonely spot knows 

 is when hounds come, or the shooters disturb 

 it, but this does not happen more than twice or 

 thrice during the season. So the well-beaten 

 paths, which traverse the thickets, and wind 

 their ways up the sides of the steep banks, do 

 not owe their smooth surface to human feet. A 

 little knowledge of tracking and footprints does 

 much to solve the mystery, for in the soft muddy 

 places, where the rainwater has collected and 

 formed puddles, are the pad-marks of the creatures 

 that passed in the night ; there is a small narrow 

 neat footprint, which tells where a fox went by, 

 and there are many big deeply impressed tracks, 



