->*-'S.iai5^?'.v Lancashire* - SSI- 



succeeded the cracked and fissured state in which the upper 

 bed of rock now appears.* The blocks, or gigantic tessera, 

 of this rocky pavement are sometimes of huge dimensions: 

 the thickness of the upper bed varies; the depth of the 

 crevices, I found, exceeded, in some places, six feet. 



It was highly interesting to observe the efforts of nature to 

 clothe with vegetation this hard, arid, sloping floor of rock, 

 which, at a rough guess, I should think, extended north and 

 south about 300 yards, and east and west 200 yards. At its 

 base is a thriving coppice wood, composed chiefly of hazel 

 nut bushes, oak, and ash trees. The hazel (Corylus ^vellana 

 Lin.), the most prevailing tree of the wood below, is, I think, 

 the most abundant upon the rock above. On advancing up 

 the fissured rock, this species is to be seen firmly rooted 

 within the crevices; its stinted head is twisted down upon the 

 surface of the rock, being often unable to rear itself above a 

 few inches high, on account of exposure to the strong and 

 briny gales from the west. Its seeds, rolling down, are arrested 

 by the mosses, or lodge in the numerous furrows, wliich are 

 worn upon the surface of the rock by the showers of centuries.' 

 I measured the depth of one of these waterworn gutters, 

 which begin immediately after a cross crevice, and gradually 

 deepen in proportion to the length of their course ; I found the 

 depth, at six feet length of furrow, to be seven inches. These 

 appear to be the channels up which vegetation is advancing 

 most readily from below: being filled near the base with 

 mosses and decayed vegetable matter, many a flowering shrub 

 was to be seen flourishing therein; at a few paces, how- 

 ever, upwards, the shelter of the wood is lost to them ; they 

 then dwindle away, and leave the work of vegetation to the 

 hardy yew, the hazel, the ash, and the holly, &c. The yew 

 (Zaxus baccata/>/w.) is to be seen growing in a very curious 

 manner : rooted, like the hazel, in a crevice, with its stinted 

 boughs spreading out in a circular form, and closely folded 

 down upon the surface of the rock, the whole plant strongly 

 resembles a living vegetable mat firmly fitted upon the rocky 

 floor. Several of these plants (spreading out scarce three or 

 four feet in diameter, and rising no higher than a few inches) 

 are probably the growth of a large portion of a century. Not 

 unfrequently this closely matted bush, almost if not entirely 

 incapable of motion by the strongest blast, is to be seen 



* The texture of this limestone is in general very close, and it is so hard 

 as sometimes to make a fine marble: it has indeed been used for chimney, 

 pieces : those made at Kendal are noted for their beauty. 



Within a mile and a half of Cringlebarrow, to the N.N.E., is another, 

 but far more extensive, surface of the rock, cracked up in a similar manner. 



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