MICKLE FELL. 17 



To climb this mountain from the High Force Inn is not a 

 difficult, though rather a long walk, whether we cross the bold 

 greenstone of Cronkley Scar, or take the way from Caldron 

 Snout; in either direction some boggy ground must be passed. 

 Arrived on the summit, a magnificent panorama rewards the 

 pedestrian. 



Resting for a while in the north on the solitary moorlands 

 which surround the great mound of Cross Fell (2901 feet), the 

 eye speedily turns to the west, and catches, in succession, the 

 far-off peaks of Carrock Fell, Skiddaw, and Helvellyn, the yet 

 more distant Pikes, and the Old Man above Coniston. Nearer, 

 to the south-west, are the undulated groups of Hougill Fells ; 

 and to the left of them Wild Boar Fell, High Seat, Water Crag, 

 and Shunnor Fell, between whose broad surfaces rise the finer 

 and loftier forms of Whernside and Ingleborough. More to the 

 east we trace the outlines of Penyghent and Great Whernside ; 

 and over a hundred hills of less conspicuous character, which 

 grow lower and lower toward the Vale of York, the Hambleton 

 and Cleveland Hills swell into a long, but, even at this distance 

 of forty miles, by no means formal or uninteresting range. 



Far below, on the north, is the valley of the Tees, expanded 

 into the long dark tarn called the Weel ; the waterfall of Cal- 

 dron Snout ; and the greenstone cliffs of Cronkley ; to the 

 south lies the wild and dreary region of Lunedale ; the country 

 slopes easily eastward, but to the west breaks down by a pre- 

 cipitous wall of rocks, overlooking with a magnificent survey 

 the Vale of Eden, beyond which rise with uncommon grandeur 

 the Cumbrian Alps. 



In making the ascent by Cronkley Scar, the geologist may 

 be interested by the metamorphic condition of the limestone 

 which rests on the thick mass of the ' Whin Sill.' It is in fact 

 converted to a crystallized white rock of very large grain, which 

 easily disintegrates into loose crystalline sand. It is sometimes 

 called ' Sugar limestone.' On this peculiar surface Cistus mari- 

 folius, Hippocrepis comosa and Arenaria verna may be gathered 



c 



