On either side, the hill fell back, and the ground was broken with tufts of rush, and flag, and mares-tail, and a few rough alder-trees overclogged with water.

And not a bird was seen or heard, neither rail nor water-hen, wag-tail nor reed-warbler.
Of this horrible quagmire, the worst upon all Exmoor, John had heard from his grandfather, and even from his mother, when they wanted to keep him quiet; but his father had feared to speak of it to him, being a man of piety, and up to the tricks of the evil one.

This made John the more desirous to have a good look at it now, only with his girths well up, to turn away and flee at speed, if anything should happen.

And now he proved how well it is to be wary and wide-awake, even in lonesome places.

For at the other side of the Slough, and a few land-yards beyond it, where the ground was less noisome, he had observed a felled tree lying over a great hole in the earth, with staves of wood, and slabs of stone, and some yellow gravel around it.