INTRODUCTION. xxi 



cut their way in the form of narrow, well-wooded, sheltered 

 and productive ravines, giving some charm to this otherwise 

 monotonous country, which formerly constituted the famous 

 Forest of Bowland. 



The South-Western Moorlands. — The summit ridge, 

 broken and irregular among the fells of the north-west, and 

 interrupted by comparatively low ground south of them, 

 begins again near Keighley and Ilkley, and is carried south- 

 ward by a broad and continuous band of elevated and mono- 

 tonous rolling heatherland, which extends along the county 

 boundary as far as Derbyshire, and attains its greatest 

 elevation — 1,859 ^^^^ — ^^ Holme Moss. These unbroken 

 stretches of dreary moorlands — unrelieved save by deep 

 and narrow " doughs " or ravines, are, in comparison with 

 the Fells of the north-west, of but slight interest to the 

 naturalist. Homogeneous in their geological structure, and 

 presenting no other soils than the barren and unproductive 

 peat-laden and heather-covered millstone grit, they afford 

 little variety in their fauna. The high moors are inhabited 

 by Grouse — more strictly preserved here than elsewhere — 

 and by occasional pairs of Curlew, Golden Plover, Snipe, Black 

 Grouse, Ring Ousel, and less frequent still an odd pair of 

 Dunlin ; the streams are the haunt of the Dipper, the Grey 

 Wagtail, and Sandpiper, while the lower parts of the valleys 

 are inhabited by such birds as are able to maintain their 

 ground against man and his works. For the south-western 

 moorlands are situate between the two great coal-fields and 

 manufacturing districts of Yorkshire and Lancashire, and 

 are not only of easy access to a vast population, but within 

 the direct influence of the clouds of smoke which accompany 

 the manufacture of cotton upon the one side, and wollens 

 and worsteds upon the other. 



The Manufacturing District. — At the foot of the 

 south-western moorlands, and to the east of them, the great 

 Yorkshire coalfield stretches from Leeds and Bradford to 

 Halifax, Huddersfield, Wakefield, Barnsley, and Sheffield. 

 Within this comparatively limited area is congregated the 

 great mass of the population of Yorkshire, for here the presence 



