UPLANDS OF BRITAIN 103 



more than 2000 feet above the sea. Seen from a distance, 

 they look like ranges of hill or mountain, but without 

 that variety of peak and crest which a true mountain 

 outline would present. Though they may rise steeply 

 out of the lower grounds, we have only to climb to 

 their summit to find ourselves at the edge of a wide 

 rolling platform, which may stretch for leagues without 

 ever rising into any sharp prominence, or departing 

 from the same monotony of moorland. Yet if we 

 attempt to cross this seemingly continuous tableland, 

 we find our progress barred by many valleys which, 

 deep sunk beneath the general level, divide the plateau 

 into separate blocks or ridges. 



The surface of these uplands is for the most part 

 treeless and even bushless. Where not covered with 

 peat-moss, it is clothed with bent or with heather, kept 

 short and green by periodical burning in the spring- 

 time. Herds of cattle and flocks of sheep wander over 

 the pastures, but, save the stone fences, there is little 

 other visible trace of human occupation. It is in the 

 little hollows that lead down into the main valleys, and 

 in these valleys themselves, that trees make their 

 appearance, first in scattered saplings of birch, alder or 

 mountain-ash, and then in thicker copsewoods or in 

 artificial plantations of fir and larch. In these shel- 

 tered depressions, the farms and villages of the region 

 have been planted, and cultivation has been slowly 

 pushed upward on the slopes of the fells. Thus the 

 larger part of the area of the uplands is uninhabited, 

 the population being restricted to the more or less 

 sheltered ' hopes,' hollows, dales, and valleys. 



This type of scenery presents many local varieties, 



