l< Hi RIVERS. 



which falls, and allow it so easily to pass for great distances 

 underground, that many of the valleys are dry for miles, and 

 springs burst out naturally, or may be obtained by art, at points 

 beyond the chalky surface. The artificial process is exemplified 

 in artesian wells : the natural efflux by the intermittent spring 

 in the harbour of Bridlington. 



At Rudston, on the high ground south of the principal 

 Gypsey, is a famous monolith, possibly sacred in Saxon times, 

 and so named ' Roodstone/ i.e. Stone of the Cross but also 

 possibly a Druid stone of earlier date, dear to an earlier creed. 

 It is taller than any one of the stones of Boroughbridge, being 

 29 feet above the surface, and is reported to be rooted even deeper 

 in the ground. It is not a mass of the same kind of stone, but 

 consists of a finer-grained grit, such as might easily be obtained 

 on the northern moorlands, about Cloughton, beyond Scarbo- 

 rough, to which ancient British settlement a road led from Rud- 

 ston by Burton Fleming and Staxton. Near Wold Newton, in 

 1795, a great meteorite or mass of iron 56 Ibs. in weight fell from 

 the sky, and penetrated the earth to the depth of a foot. It is 

 now conspicuous in the British Museum. In this neighbour- 

 hood are several camps and many earth-mounds. 



THE ESK. 



The ESK, flowing eastward to Whitby, and the Leven, running 

 westward to Yarm, are tenants of the same valley in the upper 

 part of their course, near Rosebury Topping. The easternmost 

 fork of the Leven runs toward the Esk, and is only diverted 

 from it by a low swell, not 10 feet above its own level; probably 

 formed of detrital matter laid in the previously excavated valley. 

 All the considerable feeders of the Esk run in ' Dales ' ; and the 

 waterfalls on them are ' Forces/ as in the north-western parts of 

 Yorkshire. The hills, however, are not called ' Fells/ which would 

 have completed the Norwegian affinity, but e Moors/ and their 

 edges are frequently called ' Banks/ Tumuli scattered on the 



