LANDSCAPE GARDENERS 43 



using them as baths, made the sides steep and circu- 

 lar, and thus gave a uniform character to the pools. 

 They also carried off a quantity of the mud on their 

 bodies, and so helped to keep the " pans " deep and 

 prevented them from silting up. Access to the 

 pools was generally between two large rocks, the 

 path being worn into a deep roadway by the animals 

 that came to drink. 



Here in England the continuous or permanent 

 marks left on the landscape by the larger animals are 

 very noticeable. The peat-beds on the Kennet near 

 Newbury were very possibly formed by the dams 

 made by beavers, as the remains of those industrious 

 predecessors of Sir Benjamin Baker have been found 

 in them ; and though this country shows nothing 

 quite so curious as the paths of the dwarf cattle of the 

 Indian hills, paths which, seen on the slopes from a 

 distance, seem to cover them with a kind of scale 

 pattern, nearly all our steep downs and pastures, 

 other than those on mountains and fells, are worn 

 into little shelves by the sheep. For unknown 

 ages these creatures have pastured on the slopes, 

 and on the steeper ones have worn these paths, 

 on which they stand while grazing the turf sloping 

 just above them. They make tracks on the moun- 

 tains and fells too. But there the land is so broken 

 by rocks and boggy patches that the effect is far less 

 striking than on the chalk downs or the marly sides 

 of Devonshire hills. In all our parks and meadows 

 the browsing of cattle has produced a curious uni- 

 formity, by causing what is known as the " cattle 



