Wrapped in thick furs and thicker cloaks, they attacked the hardened earth with vigour, probably because the exercise helped to keep them warm.

We crossed a river on a bridge, man-built of timbers rudely cut and set in hardened earth.

From under a thin layer of hardened earth, he pulled up a copper scabbard.

With all plant life burned away, the earth became a scorched, dried desert of hardened earth and rock.

Behind him he heard the sound of crum- bling hardened earth, faint and soft, pitter patter on the floor.

There was no sound save the occasional faint scrape of their boots on the hardened earth.

It was slow going, the digging often reduced to one pebble, one small chunk of hardened earth at a time.

A third weighty chop parted them, carrying the cleaver through the horse blanket Darig lay on and into the hardened earth below.

Steam smelling rank and fetid geysered from cracks that split the hardened earth.

They raised their heads and stared, or ambled slowly on, tugging at the tufts of dry grass that clung tenaciously to the hardened earth.