to maintain grouse upon it. Either it may be incapable 

 of producing the variety or quantity of natural growth 

 necessary, or it may drown out the birds in wet weather 

 by reason of its holding instead of running off the rain. 

 It is, doubtless, true that moorlands all bear much the 

 same character in respect of soil, but it is also true that 

 they vary more considerably than is generally imagined. 

 It will often be noticed that, notwithstanding a very 

 sheltered position, some portions, often of large extent, 

 exhibit a sterility quite extraordinary, beside another 

 occupying a most weather-beaten aspect. That this is 

 due to the soil to some extent is certain, but more probably 

 to the distance of the surface mould from the underlying 

 rock. One side of a hill exposed to all the roughest 

 storms of wind, rain, and cold may be thickly clad with 

 heather, ling, and berry-bearing plants ; the other, occupy- 

 ing the side of a sheltered valley, scarcely bear a blade of 

 grass or a tuft of heath. It is, therefore, necessary, as 

 the first step, to discover whether the moor be capable 

 of producing, or, in fact, does produce, a sufficiency of the 

 indispensable cover and food for the birds, embracing in 

 large proportion the several plants enumerated in the fore- 

 going chapter. 



In a wet season, partridges, chiefly the young birds, are 

 drowned out to enormous extent on the clayey lands ; and 

 the same causes which bring this about effect, in similar 

 fashion, the deaths of thousands of young grouse or 

 "cheepers." Moorlands at any time are not the least 

 rainy parts of the country, and when for five or six days 

 in succession the deluge is repeated, they become neither 

 the driest nor the cosiest of outdoor habitations. On un- 

 suitable moors, or those which by reason of their nature or 

 situation are unable to run off the surplus water quickly, 

 the ground becomes soddened, every little depression 



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