DEVON AND SOMERSET. 83 



Some of its most impressive aspects, however, 

 are undoubtedly those when the storm-fiend is 

 abroad and the elements are at plav. The blank 

 cartridge of a westerly gale, against which the 

 galloping deer cannot force their way over the 

 open, is all very w^ell, but when double-shotted 

 with hail it is enough to make the boldest horse- 

 man turn and fiv for the shelter of the nearest 

 beech fence, where he may cower until the 

 squall sweeps bv. 



The moorland streams are always interesting, 

 whether it be fishing time or whether they are 

 rushing down bank high in thick turbid flood 

 to join the Lyn or Barle or Exe or Horner 

 water. Along their course hunted deer love to 

 run, wdth splashes and occasional full-stops to 

 roll their broad backs in the pools if they have 

 suiiicient start of their pursuers to allow them- 

 selves time to do it, but every stickle and every 

 angle of the stream has its complement of 

 boulders and of water-worn rocks on which the 

 tell-tale splashes left bv the hurrying animal 

 prove a sure guide to the keen-eyed hunts- 

 man, and every here and there, at intervals 

 of a mile or tw^o, perhaps, are cattle poles 

 stretched across the stream-beds, where deer 

 are sure to leave the water or, at any rate, 

 show^ some trace of their passing, either to the 

 hound's keen instinct or the huntsman's enquir- 

 ing eye. 



