[March, 1861.] 05 



CUMBEIAN BOTANY. 

 By E. Green. 



Holborn Hill is a large village situated near the extreme 

 southern point of Cumberland, and separated from Lancashire 

 only by the Duddou Sands. It stands on elevated ground, and 

 commands a fine panoramic view, extending from Black Comb 

 on the north, around the furthermost point of the estuary at 

 Broughton, and so on along the Lancashire side of the sands to 

 the long straggling Isle of Walney ; Coniston, Old Man, and 

 other mountains of the Lake district filling in the background. 



At the distance of a mile is a good and extensive beach, on 

 which break the waters of the Irish Channel. The air is pure 

 and bracing. Close to the village is a station on the Whitehaven 

 and Furness Railway, which is connected with another line 

 branching off from the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway at Carn- 

 forth. There is a good inn, and one or two small lodging-houses. 

 It is frequented chiefly by the commercial traveller, the sports- 

 man, and an occasional antiquarian or geologist. For the two 

 latter there is abundance of work ; for Druidical circles and other 

 remains of antiquity abound in the neighbourhood, whilst the 

 mighty mass of Black Comb affords endless scope to the mind of 

 either a contemplative or a real practical geologist. " It is," as 

 Professor Sedgwick says, composed " of contorted Skiddaw slate, 

 and has by a great fault been raised two or three thousand feet 

 above its natural level." ISIear Bootle, eight miles distant, is a 

 red porphyritic dike, which I was anxious to see; but, being 

 pressed for time, the slight search I made was unsuccessful. 

 According to Professor Sedgwick there are many other places 

 on this mountain where the granite has been forced up in a state 

 of fusion through the slate, thus creating a subject for man's 

 highest powers of thought ! 



I have been told on all hands, for I have not yet made the 

 ascent myself, that the extensive and varied view from the sum- 

 mit of the Comb is of no ordinary description, 



I hope that this long preamble may induce other tourists to 

 notice this neighbourhood ; for I feel assured that the visitor, 

 whether he be a geologist or an archaeologist, a disciple of Lin- 

 nseus or an humble follower of Izaak Walton, will find abundant 



N. S. VOL. v. K 



