61 



LOCAL NAMES. 



By peter HARRISON, (Keswick.) 



(Abstract.) 



One advantage, and that perhaps not the least in value, arising 

 from the cultivation of the intellectual and reasoning faculties, is 

 the habit of observation and reflection which the strivings after 

 knowledge engender and call into action, and the daily, nay- 

 hourly, pleasure afforded by the exercise of such a habit. Let any 

 one, for instance, who for years, it may be, has been in the habit 

 of Avalking abroad without any other purpose in view than the 

 exercise of his limbs and the inhaling of the fresh air of field and 

 fell, be led by any chance to have his interest awakened in the 

 commonest objects around him. If after frequenting some grove 

 or wood, let us say, for years without paying any special attention 

 to the various kinds of trees, he be once led to distinguish one 

 class from another and to inform himself of their various rates of 

 growth, the respective uses and values of their timber, the most 

 suitable soils and situations for their growth, their size and produc- 

 tiveness, and — better still — if of those of foreign introduction he 

 learns to refer each class to its native climate, and to know some- 

 thing of the causes or reasons which led to their introduction. 

 How much fresh food for thought will have here been supplied 

 him ! With what additional pleasure will his future rambles be 

 attended ! Or let us suppose that all his life he has had a strong 

 love for the mountains, that he has visited their summits and 

 explored their valleys over and over again ; that with their varied 

 outlines, their contours, their huge bulky masses, their ravines, 

 precipices, waterfalls, and passes he is familiar; that he has admired 



