Snow Tracks Snow on high ground, the forecast said. We
can see the snow on the mountains right through the winter. It appears at the end of October, and is often visible on cold days in April. The snow we were promised came on the hilly farms above the village. The fields were blanketed and the frozen furrows obscured. A snow-covered field is a sort of map of the wild life that is in it, and the whole story is there for the man who can read the tracks. I find it engrossing to consider the relationship of the prints. Did the fox cross before the rabbit ? Was the stoat after the mouse in the tuft that has so obviously, been disturbed ? Even the story of the pot-hunter is there. The studs of his boots are an incriminating signature, up the hedge, through the thicket to the place where feathers are embedded in the snow. By the stream this tracery of the footprints of birds is enough to keep one speculating for hours, for more than water-birds seek the banks at this time. It is only where the water runs that green life is exposed, and without it many. birds would surely die.
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