UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 189 



" I have lately read two facts," Mary said, 

 t( which shew the depth of those remarkably 

 abrupt ravines that intersect these craggy moun- 

 tains in the moorlands of Staffordshire. In 

 Narrowdale, the sun is never seen by the inhabi- 

 tants for the three winter months ; and even 

 when it is visible, it does not rise to them till one 

 o'clock in the afternoon. The other circumstance 

 is this at Leek, the sun at a certain time of the 

 year, seems to set twice in the same evening : for, 

 after it sinks beneath the top of a high intervening 

 mountain, it again breaks out from behind the 

 steep northern side before it reaches the horizon." 



1th. My uncle shewed me to-day a hard 

 black substance of very close grain. I did not 

 know what it could be, for it evidently was not 

 coal, nor flint. He told me, that the soil which 

 covers the great northern coal-field appears to 

 be alluvial, and that it contains masses of all the 

 different rocks that compose the whole district ; 

 and among them, portions of this hard black 

 basalt are found every where in abundance. 



"I shew you this/' he said, " because the an- 

 cient inhabitants of Britain formed the heads of 

 their battle-axes, which are commonly called 

 celts, from this stone. They resemble in shape 

 the tomahawks of the South Sea islands. Barbed 

 arrow-heads, neatly finished, and made of pale 



