Country Life
BY IAN NIALL MY angling outings take me far into the hills, and I usually fish, with an interval for a snack, for at least eight hours during which I see no one, and hear only the occasional croak of the raven. Now and again an air liner may drone over, like a bee in flight, but that is about all, or was, until last summer when I heard something that took my attention from what I was doing. Over the mountain, tower- ing above the lake, came two motor-cycles. How the riders kept their balance I do not know. They bounced and skidded along a slope and gradually passed out of earshot and sight There have been more venturesome wheel travellers this year and I think a craze for mountain riding is on the way. The Council for the Preservation of Rural Wales is con- cerned about motor-cycle trials and 'scrambles' in Snowdonia, I read in my paper, and the National Council of the Ramblers' Association is protesting against the use of mountain tracks by mechanically propelled vehicles, for similar 'nuisances' have been reported elsewhere. One cannot blame the ramblers for protesting. There should be, one feels, some corner where it is possible to walk in peace and breathe only the pure air of the hills without either the roar or the smell of petrol engines, but is there a legal definition of what may or may not pass along a mountain track? The argu- ment with the motor-cycling fraternity has been going on for at least a year now, and is likely to go on much longer.
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