HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OS SIP. 



and of exquisite form and colour. The other iron 

 ores, such as siderite, marcasite, ilmenite, are pretty 

 common. Manganite is beautifully crystallised at 

 Force Crag mine. Wad occurs in the recesses of 

 Skiddaw. Erythrine and Smaltine are rather rare. 

 Splendid specimens of Malachite and Chrysocolla 

 have been found at Dale Head. Molybdenum ore, 

 massive and disseminated in granite, appears at 

 Coldbeck Fells, etc. Wolfram and Scheelite occur 

 in the same locality, along with Bismuthine, and 

 Tetradymite. Cerussite and Anglesite, crystallised 

 and acicular, occur at Greenside, etc. Pyromorphite, 

 of a rich golden yellow colour, is found at Brundholme 

 mine. Johnstonite has been lately found at Green- 

 side. Calamine, in reniform and botryoidal form, 

 appears at Alston Moor. Smithsonite occurs in 

 crystalline mammillary crusts, of a magnificent sky- 

 blue colour, at Roughtengill. 



As Patterdale and the adjacent glens are about the 

 most prolific wild flower gardens in the Lake District, 

 a description of Ullswater Lake may fitly precede our 

 catalogue of their contents. 



Round Ullswater Lake. — In a hollow betwixt 

 wild craggy precipices, and stretching away to 

 meander through gently undulated meads and 

 pasture lands, Ullswater, the nonpareil of English 

 lakes, appears. Viewed from various standpoints — 

 from the water's edge, from the adjacent fells, from 

 the more remote peaks of the lofty mountains, 

 a series of pictures and vistas can be commanded, 

 which are unsurpassed in rich lavish beauty, and 

 diversified grace. The steel-like mirror of the water 

 is at times unruffled, and faithfully reflects the 

 innumerable tints and hues, outlines and physiognomic 

 expression of cloudland, and of the adjacent banks 

 and precipices. How severe, dark, and stern is its 

 aspect, when the bold front of Place Fell is buried 

 deep in shadow ! Then, deep and serene, calm as 

 death, shrouded in gloom, mark what an infinite 

 profundity and volume of expression — or shall we say 

 feeling? — seems bodied forth from the liquid expanse. 

 Or again, the sun streams out, the air flashes with 

 light ; then the lake seems aglow, with all her little 

 islets bosomed soft, and all her rocks brightened 

 round her. 



Mount the craggy fell, and view the lake from the 

 uplands at a moderate altitude. Then you observe 

 the lavish effluence of greenery which its soft, moist 

 exhalations serve to engender. A forest-crowned 

 promontory, studded with a vigorous evolution of 

 vegetable life, juts into the lake, the trees exquisitely 

 embowered in a soft green flowing drapery, each tree- 

 growth developed to the full, and prominent every 

 zone, with shoots and branches decorated with green 

 pendent tresses, shaken out in the dewy air. What 

 an area of massy verdurous bloom richly clothing all 

 the rugged hillside, and imparting such admirable 

 beauty to the lakeland scene ! Then, too, at other 

 points, behold the profuse dottings, and scatterings, 



and sprinklings of tree and shrub ! Some are tiny 

 and slender, others large, shadowy, and vigorously 

 expanded — here in clumps and knolls, there dotted 

 sparsely o'er the fell-side, even to the yellow margin 

 of the water. 



Then come round, and stand where the steep and 

 shaggy fell-side reaches downward to the lake, to the 

 point where its extreme height and craggy majesty of 

 outline may be fully appreciated. Here the attractions 

 of form, sublime and huge, are superadded — mighty 

 curves, gigantic outlines traced by the towering hills, 

 with sloping breasts and abrupt acclivities, perched 

 as it were upon, and culminating in, the calm 

 horizontal bosom of the water. Advance yet further 

 now, and contemplate a fairy vista of the lake, with a 

 background of huge, abrupt, diversified, towering 

 mountains, softened away beneath the light and shade, 

 and in the midst of that enchantment, and embossed 

 on the calm floor of the water, an islet most pictu- 

 resquely perched, and decked with an outgrowth of a 

 few green trees. How exquisite the sense of beauty 

 here ! What a sweet and telling combination ! 

 Here, indeed, are the elements of an impressive 

 picture. A sweet calm silvery lake of everlasting 

 beauty, fair emblem of a lowly serenity : a tiny islet 

 charmingly set, fit seat of the palm-crowned glories of 

 an Indian isle, and withal, a background framing of 

 hills rugged and severe, the fierce arena of cloudland 

 gloom, and of terrific aerial effects and impressions. 



Ascend some of the lofty mountains that encompass 

 the southern reach of the lake, and scan it from their 

 lofty altitudes. Ha ! how the distance lends enchant- 

 ment to the view ! Sometimes only a narrow strip, 

 or an oval patch peeps from among the thronging 

 vista of hills. Sometimes the upper reach, or the 

 middle reach, or both conjoined, are visible, stretched 

 meanderingly through a low-lying tract. But the 

 lower reach is the most beauteous one. Here, from 

 this hill-top point of vantage, how bright and gleaming 

 it seems amid ,the]dark hill-screens that frown upon its 

 shore. Clear and lustrous, as 'twere a mirror, the 

 silvery mirror of Nature, what a contrast it is to the 

 rugged diversity of sombre-shadowed hill and dale I 

 How the islets seem to float as 'twere on the calm 

 bosom of the water, like things of light in a fairy 

 realm ! It is, forsooth, an impressive centre of 

 attraction. A physical aspect deliciously soft and 

 soothing to the retina and ocular organs ; an aspect 

 pre-eminently calculated to render the mind cognizant 

 of a mental quality perceived as existing in the object, 

 cognizant of it as the very image of rest and placidity, 

 and of clear, unsubstantial lustrousness amid a 

 rugged, disrupted, unequivocally solid, and passion- 

 less environment. 



Wild Flowers of the Ullswater District. — 

 In addition to the more common and familiarly known 

 spring flowers, there may be seen here, in the meadows 

 and woodland pastures, profuse forests of the yellow 

 and red rattle, eyebright, clog's mercury, milkwort, 



B 2 



