XXll DARTMOOR. 



Snipe-shooting; rain came on at the same time — such rain as can 

 only be experienced on the moor — and, being without a compass, 

 we were in great perplexity, wandering on, quite lost as to our 

 direction, until we luckily came across a little running stream 

 which brought us out on the high road near Post Bridge, from 

 whence we managed to find our way back to Chagford, which we 

 reached late at night. 



We must not omit to add that numerous bogs and mires, and 

 extensive beds of peat, sometimes 13 feet in depth, form peculiar 

 features of the Dartmoor country. Some of the mires are not 

 safe to walk across, as the unwary might sink in and find extri- 

 cation difficult. All patches which present a bright green surface 

 should be especially avoided, as the brilliant colour is a sure index 

 of a treacherous peat-hole concealed beneath. At one time we 

 were attended on the moor by a keeper fresh from a dry district in 

 Norfolk, and great used to be his dread of venturing far on the 

 quaggy surface of Raybarrow Mire ! Indeed he took no pleasure 

 in any part of the moor. Signs of the long-continued action of 

 water meet the wanderer in the forest on every side — not only in 

 the bogs and mires, and in the numerous streams which issue 

 from them, but in the narrow fissures in the hollows between the 

 rounded hills, worn many feet deep by the constant erosion of tiny 

 runnels ; in stepping across one of these the horns of some 

 unfortunate bullock may be detected far below, the gap having 

 been just wide enough for the beast to slip through, and once 

 in all escape has been impossible. The Dartmoor ponies have a 

 reputation for great sagacity in recognizing dangerous ground , 

 and some we have tested in this particular could never be 

 induced to advance far upon a mire ; but they are not all equally 

 clever. One day when we were shooting Snipe we were joined 

 by a friend who was mounted on a good-looking cob, and when 

 we questioned him as to the cob's willingness to venture on boggy 

 ground, we were assured that the animal was " very safe " ; but 

 the words had hardly been uttered when it deliberately stepped 

 into the midst of a verdant patch, sinking up to the girths in the 

 liquid mud ! 



The name of '^ Forest " (which signifies a " chase " or tract of 

 country set apart for game) might lead some people to expect that 



