EVERGREEN TIMBER IN PRESERVES. 189 



quite different from the rumble produced even by 

 the loudest artillery, and the clear cloudless sky 

 forbade the supposition of its being caused by 

 even distant thunder. On my way home I passed 

 several persons who had heard it, and many of 

 whom had noticed its effect on the pheasants, 

 especially one party of labourers who were em- 

 ployed in repairing a fence near a long hanger 

 one of the best preserves in the county they told 

 me that a loud and long continued crowing pro- 

 ceeded from all parts of the wood for many 

 minutes after the last explosion. They too were 

 unable to conjecture the cause of the sound, nor 

 was the mystery unravelled until the following 

 day, when intelligence arrived of the awful ex- 

 plosion and loss of life at Messrs. Curtis and 

 Harvey's powder mills at Hounslow, nearly fifty 

 miles in a direct line from the spot where I 

 heard it. 



But to return from this digression. The rapid 

 growth of Scotch and spruce firs recommend them 

 to the notice of every game preserver ; indeed the 

 horizontal branches and dense foliage of the 

 latter afford at once unrivalled facilities for perch- 

 ing, and warm situations for roosting during the 

 most inclement winters. I have seen the advan- 

 tages of such an experiment in a wood belonging 

 to a friend of mine, not many miles from the spot 



