304 THE MOOR, OR UPLAND. 



of water by evaporation. The chief plants upon a 

 moor have, in fact, the power of satisfying themselves 

 with abundant humidity for life and growth ; and at 

 the same time laying up a store for the vegetation 

 lower down, in such a way as that it is regularly 

 distributed. Thus that which at first sight seems only 

 a wasteful heap of rubbish, is a powerful instrument 

 of good in the hand of all-bountiful and all-beneficent 

 Nature. 



When one leaves the highest fields of the cultivated 

 ground, where the crops, though admirable in quality, 

 are scanty in bulk, where moss creeps over the sur- 

 face, and a bush of rushes, or a sprinkling of heath 

 upon the old lea, puts man in mind, that if he 

 will have even a grassy pasture for his cattle, he 

 must manure and plough again ; and when you have 

 cleared the last rude fence of dry stones, and feel 

 under your foot the soft elastic sod of hassocky grass, 

 rather harsh and hard for being eaten, the foremost 

 to salute you with an apparent welcome, though, in 

 reality, it is a species of coquetting to divert you from 

 what she fears is your purpose, is 



