His horizon was bounded by the high land on the southern side of the River Stour. At his feet was a rolling, sandy plain, diversified here and there by clumps of trees, but mostly covered with gorse and heather. This plain stretched away into the distance, and beyond it an occasional silvery gleam betrayed the winding channels of Poole harbour. Here and there across the plain he could see evidences of human occupation, the white surface of a clay-pit or the roof of a tiny isolated cottage. But, apart from these, the tract of country over which he looked appeared utterly deserted, abandoned to a great silence disturbed only by the note of some hovering bird.