Mr. Douglas Gordon's very pleasant Dartmoor in all its Moods
(Murray, 9s.) has something to say about the human dwellers on the moor—their customs, land-tenures and beliefs in white magic, for example—but. much more about its wild inhabitants, and among these can be included the subtle ways of the poacher. There was one of the hrotherhood who sought the death of a large and well-known trout, and to that • dark end " throwed bread and cheese on the water ever so many times and bided handy to shoot un when he corned up." But the trout is still there. Otters, badgers, foxes, wild-flowers, birds and even vipers—Mr. Gordon touches. nothing that his observant eye and long and close acquaintance with the moor do not help him to adorn. With other observers he , notes the spread of the raven and its increasing disposition to nest in trees, but we would ask him in all friendliness— does he really think it possible that that formidable fowl could be transfixed by the slender curved beak of a curlew ? For the benefit of the visitor to the moor the author tells us that the famous Cranmere Pool 'can be approached " with perfect ease and comfort " by following the West Okement Valley, and generally bids the stranger keep to' the sheep or cattle- paths, however seemingly devious, for upon Dartmoor the apparent short-cut is often the longest way round.
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