IN SUMMER HEAT. 61 



jaws ; one of the hedgehogs starts from the neck, 

 the other from the tail. That wonderful cup-and- 

 ball mechanism of the creature's backbone is quickly 

 broken up, jointed in fact, and embalmed by the 

 hedgehog family. 



Some of the uplands have been scorched up, 

 others covered with trees and scrub have remained 

 fresh and cool through it all, the brake being of 

 the richest green ; all depended, of course, on aspect 

 and locality. Water has been a precious article 

 on the tops of some of our Surrey hills recently — 

 in fact, people have been forced to buy it. I have 

 heard that in some places as much as sixpence 

 a pail has been given for good drinking-water. In 

 the most favourable times they rely generally on 

 their rain - water supply, filtered. One favoured 

 place was full of life, for the grass was fresh and 

 green there all through the dry time, and the 

 bracken flourished in rank luxuriance. Honey- 

 suckles twined thickly about the bushes, and the 

 foxgloves held up their stately flower-beds in all 

 directions, mixed with the cool mothmulleins, and 

 other plants too numerous for us to mention. 



As I have often said before, wild creatures can 



