CARTING TO MOORGAME. 117 



some preliminary difficulties ; but a greater and less easily 

 mastered one to a beginner is to see the birds. Supposing 

 him to be well equipped with horse, cart, and dog, still he 

 may travel far and wide over fell and flowe without being 

 able to see a single bird within shot. Probably after an hour 

 or two's monotonous tramping alongside the cart, he will 

 then begin to think the whole affair a delusion, and will 

 leave the cart in disgust. The moment he does so, he 

 will perhaps see Grouse after Grouse rise from the very 

 heather he has just come through, and which he has 

 scrutinized so closely without seeing anything in it. I have 

 already referred (see p. 102) to the remarkable inability at 

 first experienced in detecting Grouse when sitting low among 

 the heather, and to the equally remarkable acuteness of 

 vision which is developed by long practice. 



It is obviously no easy undertaking to manoeuvre a horse 

 and cart on such rugged and treacherous ground as the 

 moors. It would be the height of folly to attempt it, unless 

 well acquainted with the locality, or accompanied by a man 

 who is. Even then falls and minor accidents will occur, 

 but it is surprising how much can be done, and what 

 inaccessible-looking spots reached by a good man. Not 

 only, therefore, should the keeper, or leader, possess a good 

 eye, but he must also be intimately acquainted with every 

 natural feature of the ground operated upon. Every bog or 

 moss-hag, every gully or burn he should know their 

 positions and extent to a yard. His knowledge of the 

 ground should, in fact, be as accurate as that of a " mud 

 pilot" navigating a long P. and 0. steamer amidst the 

 tortuous channels and shifting sand-banks of the Thames 

 estuary. Otherwise the result is not difficult to foretell. 

 Even if by good luck he manages to avoid being bogged, or 

 "couping" the cart over a boulder, or in a hidden drain, 

 he will at any rate constantly find himself on the wrong 

 side of some deep gully or impassable burn, with no ford 

 perhaps for half a mile, and in which direction he will be 

 helplessly ignorant. 



As before mentioned, a single gun is quite as effective, or 

 even more so, with the cart than two any larger number is 



