IN FIELD AND WOOD 



the grass, he disturbed not one spear about the en- 

 trance. 



There was a mystery about this den by the road- 

 side of which I have just spoken — the pile of earth 

 could not be found; unless the roadmaker had re- 

 moved it, it must have been hidden in or beneath 

 the stone wall. 



And there was a mystery about some of the other 

 holes that was absolutely baffling to me. In at least 

 four mounds of fresh earth I found freshly dug 

 stones that I could not by any manipulation get 

 back into the hole out of which they had evidently 

 come. They were all covered with fresh earth, and 

 were in the pile of soil with many other smaller 

 stones. In one case a stone two inches long, one 

 and one half inches broad, and one half inch thick 

 was found. In two other cases stones of about the 

 same length and breadth but not so thick were 

 found, and in neither case could the stone be forced 

 into the hole. In still another case the entrance to 

 the den was completely framed by the smaller roots 

 of a beech-tree, and in the little mound of earth near 

 it were two stones that could only be gotten back 

 into the hole by springing one of these roots, which 

 required considerable force to do. In two at least 

 of these four cases it was a physical impossibility for 

 the stones to have come out of the hole from whence 

 the mound of earth and the lesser stones evidently 

 came, yet how happened they in the pile of earth 

 241 



