72 WATERSIDE SKETCHES. 



the sun, fierce overhead, was printing cloud-pictures upon 

 their broad bosoms. 



I sounded a halt at Merivale Bridge, spanning one of 

 those romantic rockyf glens which intersect Dartmoor at 

 every point. The Walkham, not yet polluted by the mines, 

 passes downwards at this point. It is a good sample of a 

 Dartmoor stream, plashing just then from point to point in 

 a quiet musical fashion, the banks open and bare, and the 

 water clear^as crystal. It was, indeed, so clear that I on 

 the spot abandoned my original intention of half an hour's 

 fishing. 



Besides there was other game on foot. A number of 

 prison warders were abroad stalking convicts. Three of 

 the wretches had escaped in -a sudden fog that, enveloping 

 the moor as with a blanket two hours before, had dis- 

 appeared as suddenly as it came. The convicts had got 

 away ; two of them had been shot when the fog lifted, and 

 the warders were searching for the third, examining every 

 boulder, every peat stack, every bit of ditch and bog. 

 Nearer Princetown we saw the warders bearing the pro- 

 strate runaway, number three, to the convict establishment, 

 winged with a bullet from a carbine. Princetown is most 

 desirable head-quarters for the angler, since it immediately 

 commands several of the moorland streams ; and there is 

 admirable hotel accommodation for man and beast in the 

 place. 



To fish Dartmoor properly a horse is necessary for a man 

 of only moderate walking powers, and if he be fortunate 

 enough to engage for the term of his stay a moorland pony 

 it will be a decided advantage. The man who can trudge 

 fifteen miles a day may, however, consider himself inde- 



