218 CONISTON OLD MAN. 



along and up its slopes, — the paths to the copper- 

 mine, — and a solitary house, looking- very desolate 

 among its 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 mountain-side to the top as 

 he best may. Where Dow Crag and the Old Man 

 join, a dark and solemn tarn lies beneath the pre- 

 cipice, as he will see from above, whence it lies due 

 west, far below. Round three sides of this Gait's 

 Tarn, the rock is precipitous ; and on the other, the 

 crags are piled in grotesque fashion, and so as to 

 afford, — as does much of this side of the moun- 

 tain, — a great harbourage for foxes, against which 

 the neighbouring population are for ever waging 

 war. The summit is the edge of a line of rocks 

 overhanging another tarn, — Low Water, — which 

 is 2,000 feet above the sea level, while the summit 

 of the Old Man is 2,632 feet. On this rock, a 

 " Man " formerly stood ; but it was removed by 

 the Ordnance surveyors, who erected another, much 

 inferior in convenience ; for the first contained a 

 chamber, welcome to shepherds and tourists over- 

 taken by bad weather. The mountain consists 

 chiefly of a very fine roofing-slate, from which a 

 very large tract of country is supplied, and in which 

 a very important trade was formerly carried on. 

 Several of the quarries are now deserted. From 

 the earliest recorded times, there have been works 

 here for the extraction of copper ; and at present it 

 is no unusual thing for £2,000 per month to be 

 paid away in wages. The works 



COPPER MINES. , l , i in -l il 



commence at about halt a mile up the 

 mountain, on its east side; and there is a large 



