140 Country Rambles, 



Glorious, nevertheless, are those untouched and silent 

 wastes. Thousands of their acres have never felt the 

 ploughshare, nay, not even the spade, and probably never 

 will. In parts they seem to belong less to the existing 

 order of nature than to obsolete ages, suggesting, like the 

 Sahara, the idea of a former and exhausted world. Seal 

 Bark might be the relics of some ancient mountain, torn 

 to fragments when the wind whistled among the Calamites 

 and the Sigillarias, now nothing but bones, nameless and 

 immemorial. 



The southernmost portion of this huge tract of wilder- 

 ness is occupied by Kinder Scout, the highest factor of 

 the Peak, the elevation being nearly two thousand feet 

 above the sea; and which, presenting a "broad bare 

 back " or plateau of fully four miles in length from east 

 to west, with a width of more than half as much, is 

 distinguishable at a glance, though often cloud-capped, 

 from all its neighbours. Unfortunately for the rightful 

 claims of massive Kinder, this great length detracts from 

 its majesty, since the majestic, to be appreciated, always 

 demands a certain amount of concentration. In sub- 

 stance, like most other parts of our "north-eastern 

 highlands," Kinder Scout is millstone-grit, thickly over- 

 laid with mountain-peat, the foothold of wiry scrub, 

 though, here and there presenting bold escarpments. 

 The surface is deeply fissured by rills of drainage-water, 

 and hillocks and depressions are universal. Paths cross 

 it in various directions, but these of course are only for 

 the brave. 



