108 
THE FEBN PAEADISE. 
Devonian charm, intermingle in rich and varying 
proportions, flinging their characteristic grace 
over the whole. As we advance, however, culti¬ 
vation becomes sparse and sparser still. The 
heights become too steep for anything but their 
own wild growth. There is, however, even until 
the unbroken moor is reached, a grand inter¬ 
mingling of wooded and barren steeps, of hilly 
corn fields, and heather and Fern-covered heights. 
Then we pause at the extremity of the branch 
line to Moretonhampstead. 
Now begins the moorland walk, extending away 
for some three or four miles to Fingle Bridge, 
Along the entire distance there is spread out for 
the Fern-lover a continual feast. For a short 
way the path winds by the side of a meadow; 
then crosses, at the end of a small thicket, a 
Fern-fringed brook. Anon it ascends a steep 
upland, and then for two miles it takes a course 
whi^h includes all the wild and varied charac¬ 
teristics of moorland scenery. Now the inter¬ 
chained peaks of Dartmoor carry the eye away 
over a wide stretch of country, the vividly- 
coloured landscape losing in freshness, but losing 
