occurrhig in Lancashire, 271 



from their great heights and rocky natures, ever remain \\\ 

 a sterile state; but yet grass grows, and sheep pastures ex- 

 tend to the lops of many of considerable altitude. Where 

 lhey are of a lower or secondary order, they are capable of 

 being covered with wood, which grows freely. This kind 

 of rock being of a fissile nature, and coniposcd of iaminas 

 or layers, mostly arranged so nearly perpendicular as to 

 form an angle of about 90 with the horizon, the roots of 

 trees find a passage for their small fibres to insinuate them, 

 selves betwixt them, and thus obtain a ready vegetation on 

 the almost naked stones. Most of the woods with which 

 that country abounds growing upon rocky ground, where 

 nothing else would be produced, but which flourish there 

 spontaneously, if only fenced from cattle *; thousands of 

 acres that would be absoUitely useless under any other cul- 

 ture, are by this means rendered highly beneficial. The 

 woods are in general cut every fifteen or sixteen years, and 

 the crop is reckoned of the same value as the land. For 

 instance, if the cutting, or /a//, (as it is here termed,) be 

 worth 16/. and the land were to be sold immediately after, 

 it would be estimated at the same sum. 



Exclusive of what comes under the denomination of tim- 

 ber, these woods are converted to many uses ; particularly 

 into charcoal, for smelting the iron ore from Low Furness, 

 in the many furnaces dispersed over the country for that 

 purpose. Poles far hoops, and the seemingly insignificant 

 article of birch besoms, are obtained from these woods in 

 great quantities. Bird-llnne is also n)anufactured from the 

 bark of the holly, which abounds in the country, and is 

 principally exported to the West-Indies for the destruction 

 of insects. 



These woods contain all the variety of trees natural to 

 the kingdom, but they consist mostly of oak and ash. 

 liazles grow in great abundance in the country north of 

 Lancaster; insonuich that it was computed that upwardsot 

 lOOO/. worth of nuts were sold there at the last Michaelmas 

 fair, principally bought for the Manchester and Liverpool 

 markets. 



Immediately incumbent on the rocks generally lie beds 

 of what in this countrv is called sammcl, (rubble,) which is 

 the rocky matter broken down info small particlvs, and 

 forming a compact bed of a particular kind of gravel. This 

 furnishes most excellent materials for the roads, for which 

 the whole of this district is so justly celebrated. With 



* Mr. Holt; in the Agricultural Survey of Lancashire, tiates, that " there 

 Ve no natural woudt i.i the county." 



scarcely 



