Apn!,"i Witty, A Naturalist on the Yorkshire Moors. 177 



1916 j ' ' 



A NATURALIST ON THE YORKSHIRE MOORS. 

 By H. Witty. 



(Read before the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, 13//; March, 1916.) 



[Abstract.] 



Though the word " moor " is generally taken to imply waste, 

 uninviting land, I think I will be able to dispel that idea in the 

 course of my remarks this evening, aided, as I shall be, by a 

 series of lantern slides, mostly from photographs taken by Dr. 

 H. G. Drake-Brockman, of Scarborough, during a holiday of 

 three weeks' duration, which I had the pleasure of sharing with 

 him some fours years ago. 



Scarborough is well known as a fashionable watering-place on 

 the north-east coast of Yorkshire, and for the naturalist is 

 fortunate in being within easy distance of some most interesting 

 country. Our holiday was spent in the neighbourhood of Hack- 

 ness and Broxa, about twelve miles distant. In this district 

 evidence of the prehistoric occupation of the soil is very striking, 

 for barrows, or burial mounds, and tumuli abound. Many of 

 these have been opened at different times, and their contents 

 recorded by various writers. The barrows are of two kinds, the 

 long and the round. The former are often 250 to 300 feet in 

 length, by about 70 feet wide, and may originally have been 

 about 20 feet high. In each of these only one person was 

 buried, sometimes only a child. Besides the skeleton, flint 

 implements were often to be found. These barrows were made 

 during the stone age, long before the introduction of iron or 

 bronze implements, hence to us the efforts made in their forma- 

 tion seem almost incredible. 



Many of the round barrows were opened by Mr. Mortimer, of 

 Driffield, and Canon Greenwell, and were found to contain the 

 remains of from six to ten skeletons. In these barrows were 

 often found indications of civilization, such as brooches, flint 

 awls, axes, and knives, also pottery in the shape of cinerary 

 urns, incense cups, food, and drinking vessels, many of which 

 were quaintly decorated, showing that these barrows were of a 

 later date than the long ones. In the round barrows stone 

 coffins were often found, together with woven fabrics and 

 spindles. 



Miles of deep entrenchments also exisl upon the moors, made 

 longbefitn- British and Roman times, which are thought to have 

 been intended as places of safety for cattle, for means of 

 communication, and for defence against hostile tribes, and show 

 that in prehistoric times these moorlands were peopled by a 

 strong and hardy race, who often engaged in warfare just as the 

 nations do to-day. The trenches are usually on the highlands 

 and lead down into the valleys, and many are sufficiently deep 



