HIS LONG ROUNDS. 169 



CHAPTER VIII. 



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The footpaths through the plantations and across the 

 fields have no milestones by which the pedestrian can 

 calculate the distance traversed ; nor is the time occupied 

 a safe criterion, because of the varying nature of the soil 

 — now firm and now slippery — so that the pace is not 

 regular. But these crooked paths — no footpath is ever 

 straight — really represent a much greater distance than 

 would be supposed if the space from point to point were 

 measured on a map. So that the keeper as he goes his 

 rounds, though he does not rival the professional walker, 

 in the course of a year covers some thousands of miles. 

 He rarely does less than ten, and probably often twelve 

 miles a day, visiting certain points twice — i.e. in the 

 morning and evening — and often in addition, if he has 

 any suspicions, making detours. It is easy to walk a mile 

 in a single field of no great dimensions when it is neces- 

 sary to go up and down each side of four long hedgerows, 

 and backwards and forwards, following the course of the 

 furrows. 



The keeper's eye is ever on the alert for the poacher's 



