ia % ©Itf X^an. 185 



(2.) By keeping the332"alna ^car road, half-way across 

 Banniside Moor, till the point where the southern and easiest 

 slope of the mountain stretches the farthest down towards 

 Torver, and then shaping a northerly course direct for the 

 summit. When the traveller has left the bright and 

 prosperous environs of Coniston behind him, and entered 

 upon this moor, he begins to feel at once the exhilaration of 

 the mountaineer. Behind him lies a wide extent of hilly 

 country, subsiding into the low blue ridges of Lancashire. 

 Below, turning round, he sees here and there a reach of 

 the Lake of Coniston, — grey, if his walk be, as it should 

 be, in the morning, and reflecting the dark promontories 

 in a perfect mirror. Amid the grassy undulations of the 

 moor, he sees here or there, a party of peat-cutters, with their 

 white horse, the latter if the sun be out looking absolutely 

 glittering, in contrast with the browness of the ground. It 

 is truly a wild moor ; but there is something wilder to come. 

 The Coniston mountain towers to the right, and the only 

 traces of human existence that can be perceived are the 

 tracks which wind along and up its slopes, the paths to 

 the copper-mine, and a solitary house, looking very deso- 

 late among the bare fields and fences. The precipice called 

 Dow (or Dhu) Crag appears in front ere long ; and then the 

 traveller must turn to the right, and get up the steep moun- 

 tain-side as best he may. Where ® obJ ^rag and the Old 

 Man join, a dark and solemn tarn lies beneath the precipice, 

 as he will see from the height above, in respect to which it 

 lies due west. Round three sides of this ©oafs ^E^atn the 

 rock is precipitous ; and on the other, the crags are piled in 

 such grotesque fashion, as to afford,^ — like much of this side 

 of the mountain, — a great harbourage for foxes, against 

 which the population are for ever waging war. The summit 

 is the edge of a line of rocks overhanging another tarn, — 



