132 The Gamekeeper at Home. 



birds ; and so for many reasons the fir has become a 

 great favourite, notwithstanding that it is of very 

 little value when finally cut down. 



For fox preserving firs are hardly so suitable, 

 because the needles, or small sharp leaves, quite 

 destroy all under-growth — not only by the turpentine 

 they contain, but by forming a thick mat, as it were, 

 upon the earth. This mass of needles takes years, 

 to all appearance, to decay, and no young green 

 blade or shoot can get through it ; besides which the 

 fir-boughs above make a roof almost impenetrable 

 to air and light, the chief necessities of a plant's 

 existence. Foxes like a close warm undergrowth, 

 such as furze, sedges when the ground is dry, the 

 underwood that springs up between the ash-stoles. 

 Although constantly out of doors — if such a phrase 

 be allowable — foxes seem to dislike cold and draught, 

 as do weasels and all their kind, notably ferrets. 

 But for pure game preserving, and for convenience of 

 watching, the keeper thinks the detached plantations 

 of fir preferable. Doubtless he is professionally right ; 

 and yet somehow a great wood seems infinitely more 

 English and appeals to the heart far more powerfully, 

 with its noble oaks and beeches and ash trees, its 

 bramble-thickets and brake, and endless beauties 

 which a life of study will not exhaust. 



