in Among the Birds in Wales 49 



strike a track ; you may very easily lose yourself and 

 follow down some brook which, with a gradual curve, 

 wUl take you in the opposite direction to the point 

 you wish to make for. And if rain and mist come 

 on, as they did one summer evening years ago, when 

 I was crossing from valley to valley by an ill-defined 

 track, you may find a pocket compass a deliverance 

 from a very comfortless night. 



It was nearly twenty years since I had been in 

 these hills, and they, or rather I should say, aU the 

 details of them, were as good as new to me. I 

 noticed with curiosity how these details gradually 

 came back to me as things known in a previous state 

 of existence, bringing the old associations back with 

 them, so that I lived in a fresh undergraduatehood 

 once more. Again and again their original writing 

 on my mind had been written over, in other regions 

 and other climates, and yet by some mysterious 

 process it was brought to light, and the palimpsest 

 made intelligible. In ascending one hill through a 

 wood, I could not be sure that I was on the old 

 familiar path till certain mossy rocks, jutting out 

 into the path under the ash-trees, came home to me 

 like old friends — not suddenly, but with a growing 

 consciousness of certainty that became firmer every 

 minute. I sat down a while by those old rocks to 

 let them have their way with me. 



In those days I knew nothing of birds ; I was far 



E 



