358 MR. T. W. WOODHEAD ON THE 
rippled sheets with very few associates. The saddle-backed 
ridge extending from West Nab to Shooter's Nab is an outlier 
of rough rock, the eastern slopes of which are covered with 
fallen blocks due to the denudation of the shales beneath. In 
the drier parts and hill-summits the cotton-grasses are replaced 
by Bilberry (Vaccinium Myrtillus), Empetrum nigrum, Linn., 
Vaccinium Vitis-idea, Linn., and Cloudberry (Rubus Chame- 
morus, Linn.). The cotton-grasses play a very insignificant part 
in the flora of our present woodlands. 
There is considerable evidence which points to the cotton- 
grass being of recent development, at any rate over certain parts 
of this moorland. Borings and excavations made at Deerhill, 
Good Bent, and Wessenden Head reveal a layer of buried 
heath-stems beneath the present cotton-grass, and persons now 
living (gamekeepers, &c.) can remember large tracts being 
covered with ling (Calluna) which are now dominated by eotton- 
grass (Eriophorum vaginatum, Linn.) At Wessenden Head 
considerable changes have taken place in this direction even 
within the last eighty years. This is attributed to interruption 
with drainage. During the last few years attempts have been 
made to improve the drainage by cutting long “grips” in the peat. 
This has already had a very marked effect, the cotton-grass 
shows evident signs of deterioration, while young shoots of ling 
are appearing in myriads over the area and its re-establishment 
is only a question of time. 
Although now a treeless zone, forests were formerly extensive, 
and much buried timber is found here. An extensive deposit 
exists at Deerhill, chiefly of Birch (Betula) and a little Oak 
and Hawthorn (Crategus). Buried trees (chiefly Birch) are also 
to be seen at Butterley Hill and Wessenden Head, and during 
excavations for a reservoir near Meltham a number of buried 
trees were found consisting of Oak, Birch, and Hazel (49). 
The position of these deposits is indicated on the District Tree 
Map. 
I have not found the Scotch fir (Pinus sylvestris) in the peat of 
these moors, but Hughes (50) says :—“ The immense quantities 
of fir and oak wood, more particularly the former, dug out of 
the moors surrounding Meltham give abundant proof that 
. extensive forests of these trees must have covered the 
hills... This fir wood, afterwards dug up out of the moors in 
hundreds of cart loads, was used as torches by the cottagers 
