46 
Beyond the eastern limit of this plain rises abruptly the bold 
features of the Cross Fell Escarpment (or what fellsiders call the 
Black Fell Side); whose steep slopes and elevated summits form a 
most striking contrast with the lowlands at their feet. The 
average level of the plain is about seven hundred feet above the 
sea; that of the summit of the Escarpment rises above that level 
nearly two thousand feet. 
It should be noted that the Escarpment itself ranges from 
south-east to north-west, so that its slopes face in such a direction 
as to receive the full strength of the sun’s rays during the warmer 
parts of the day. There is, therefore, but little peat except in a 
few sheltered hollows. Moreover the steep slope tends to run the 
surface water off quickly, and thereby to keep the surface drier 
than it would be otherwise. More than that. The general inclin- 
ation of the strata there is inward from the face of the Escarpment ; 
so that even the underground drainage is conducted towards the 
east. All these causes tend to promote a warmer and a drier 
condition of the surface than would usually characterise uplands 
of the same general nature but differently placed. The general 
effect of the sun’s rays falling upon the Escarpment is to raise the 
temperature, and therefore to lower the density, of the air next it, 
to almost the same extent as prevails over the adjoining lowlands 
of Edenside. When, therefore, no extraneous currents intervene 
to cause disturbance, the air from the lowlands has a general 
tendency to rise. 
Now if we shift our place of observation to one of the eminences 
of the Escarpment and compare the physiography of the surface 
at the back of the fellside with that we have just seen, a marked 
contrast is at once evident. From the summit crest the mountain 
tops (which represent, nearly, the original level of a great plain 
inclined eastward) gradually fall in elevation as they are traced 
towards the north-east and the east. The valleys are mere 
accidental depressions due to the removal by denudation of part 
of the old plain; they may be left out of account in the present 
enquiry. Looking at the surface as a whole one sees that it 
consists of a vast extent of dark moory uplands, overspread nearly 
ee et ee 
oa ee 
