QEOLOGICAL EXCURSION. 6 



erally along the more level country, and facing the hills on foot; so we 

 preferred riding from Eichmond to Muker, where the ascent of the But- 

 tertubs Pass begins. The scenery along this route is such as just described, 

 heightened to us by the bright light and pleasant breeze of a lovely July 

 morning; and though the mode of travelling adopted was incompatible with 

 close observation, we could not help noticing how closely autumn seemed 

 this year following summer; the gi'eat heat of the few past weeks seemed 

 acting on vegetation as it does in the Arctic regions, and numbers of 

 flowers which in this month usually make the banks gay and lively, were 

 already maturing their seed, though it is a late year. 



We passed groves of the Dogwood, (Cornus sanguinea,) in full bloom, 

 and covered, as it was, with a foam of white blossom, it was a beautiful 

 object amid the dark foliage of the bird-cherry and holly. The meadows 

 were full of the Sweet-scented Orchis, (Gymnadenia conopsea,) which seems 

 to abound everywhere in the limestone; and we picked up Arenaria verna 

 on a bank of sand and stones formed by the edges of a freshet. From 

 Muker across the Buttertubs is the road to Hawes; it is a wild lonely 

 way, following the ravine made by a torrent which descends between 

 Shumner Fell and Lovely Seat. The first-named hill is an extensive moor 

 of great elevation; from the carboniferous rock forming its summit a slaty 

 coal is mined, which is used by the lime-burners and in the smelting 

 houses of the lead- mines. 



On the shoulder of Shumner Fell, where the road reaches its culminating 

 point, it passes by the so-called Buttertubs, which give their name to the 

 Pass. These are large deep holes in the bare moor, where the Limestone 

 is the Productus bed of the Upper Series; they are curious instances of 

 the power and action of water. Many of the Limestone beds have a ten- 

 dency to split through the thickness of their mass into huge rhomboidal 

 columns, (the form of their primitive crystal,) as may be seen in the bed 

 of any stream that flows over this rock; all disturbances, therefore, cause 

 it to fissure in parallel lines. These curious pits shew this action well. 

 They are formed in various stages of growth, if the expression may be 

 permitted; sometimes there is only a funnel in the bog-earth, and a crack 

 in the bare rock; in the next this crack becomes a deep rift widened by 

 water, which passing into its depths has worn round cylindrical channels 

 down its sides; in the next there have been two fissures, with the separating 

 mass of rock worn away in the direction of the line of crystalization, thus 

 uniting them by a diagonal fissure; in another this mass is worn away 

 entirely, making a deep wide hole; others are composed of three or four, 

 or more, of these parallel fissures, with the separating walls more or less 

 worn away, sometimes entirely so, when there is a yawning gulf of a hun- 

 dred feet or more; sometimes only partially worn, when huge walls of 



