Fir Plantations. 131 



In a continuous wood of large extent, if he hears the 

 keepers coming he has but to slip as rapidly and 

 silently as possible to one side, and often has the 

 pleasure to see them pass right over the spot where 

 only recently he was lying. 



Therefore, although a wood is much more 

 beautiful from an artistic point of view, with its lovely 

 greens in spring and yellow and browns in autumn, 

 its shades and recesses and fern-strewn glades, yet if 

 a gentleman desires to imitate the monarch who laid 

 out the New Forest and plant wood, and his object 

 be simply game, the keeper is of opinion that the 

 somewhat stiff and trim plantations are preferable. 

 They are generally of fir ; and fir is the most 

 difficult of trees to slip past, being decidedly of an 

 obstructive turn. The boughs grow so close to the 

 ground that unless you crawl you cannot go under 

 them. The trunks — unlike those of many other 

 trees — will flourish so near together that the 

 extremities of the branches touch and almost inter- 

 weave, and they are rough and unpleasant to push 

 through. To shoot or trap, or use a net or other 

 poacher's implement, is very difficult in a young fir 

 plantation, because of this thickness of growth ; so 

 that in a measure the tree itself protects the game. 

 Then the cover afforded is warm and liked by the 



K 2 



