18 MOUNTAINS. 



in July, and Draba incana at an earlier period of the year. In 

 neighbouring situations occur Gentiana verna, Bartsia alpina, 

 Dryas octopetala, Thalictrum alpinum, and Lycopodium alpi- 

 num*. 



STAINMOOR (Teut. the Stony Moor}. The whole country 

 sinks from Mickle Fell to the southward, so as to form a broad 

 depression in the great Penine ridge. It is through this depres- 

 sion that the great Roman road was carried from Eboracum 

 (York) to Luguvallium (Carlisle). The title of Stainmoor applies 

 well enough to this broad surface of gritstone and shales diver- 

 sified by many picturesque low craggy summits, which are some- 

 times capped by erratic blocks of granite, brought by some 

 uncommon natural force from Shap Fell in Westmoreland. One 

 of these blocks rests on the millstone crags of Goldsborough 

 which rise to the east of the summit of Stainmoor, 1360 feet 

 above the sea : another at about the same height west of the 

 summit, which is 1440 feet above the sea. 



From the last-mentioned block we may look back across the 

 Vale of Eden, over many other such scattered erratics, almost to 

 the very point of the Fell from which they were torn, and specu- 

 late on the power employed, and the ancient condition of land 

 and sea which could render possible this almost miraculous 

 transport of heavy rocks across deep valleys and over lofty hills. 

 On the line of the Roman military road over Stainmoor, and 

 on the summit of the pass, is an ancient Camp of considerable 

 dimensions, and much singularity of construction. Its general 

 figure is rhomboidal, the angles being rounded. The sides are 

 about 300 yards long, and approximate in direction to the cardinal 

 points. 



The enclosure is formed by a vallum, nowhere much elevated 

 except on the south side, where it is partially double. On this 

 side and toward the west the ground is precipitous and rocky. 

 Toward the north, west and east, the vallum is pierced by three 

 openings in each face, and toward the south by two original 

 * Barnes's Flora of Yorkshire. 



