142 How I Became a Sportsmax. 



feature that is not pristine, intact, and natural. 

 The entire scene in spots is of this untamed 

 and primaeval character. Not a trace of man's 

 presence or occupancy is to be detected. Even 

 the half-wild cattle which range other parts of 

 the moor at pleasure seem to shun the swampy- 

 steppes of the central wilderness." Again he 

 says : " The desert expanse has come down to 

 us rude and inviolate from primaeval times. 

 The Tors pile their fantastic masses against the 

 sky as they first frowned in the uncertain 

 dawn of time. The granite wrecks of some 

 original convulsion still lie scattered in most 

 admired disorder. The roar of many an 

 ancient river foaming along the rock-bound 

 channel breaks upon the still silence of the 

 w^aste as it did hundreds of ages ago. All bears 

 the impress of unaltered duration and undis- 

 turbed solitude. Who with a particle of sensi- 

 bility could climb its Tor-crowned peaks, 

 traverse its rock-strewed ravines, or penetrate 

 its trackless morasses without an irresistible 

 impression that every object around belongs 

 to a period of unrecorded antiquity ? And who, 

 when thus surrounded by the silent yet 

 eloquent memorials of the mysterious past. 



