A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



distributed amongst the moors. L. c/avatum, alpinum, and Selago are 

 the most readily detected. Selaginella Selaginoides is frequent along the 

 stream-sides amongst the hills, but its habit renders it very inconspicuous, 

 and it may be easily overlooked without careful search. 



In all the higher moorlands of Derwent Vale, as well as Teesdale 

 and Weardale, abundant evidence of extinct forest vegetation may be met 

 with. The remains of roots, both of oak and birch, are found, in situ, 

 deeply buried in the peat, while fallen trunks and branches of birch 

 project freely wherever the peat is exposed. Thick deposits of hazel 

 nuts occur in the beds of peat moss by the sides of the Burnhope Burn, 

 above Wearhead. The oak must certainly be considered truly indigenous 

 in Durham, for enormous trunks and branches are also dug out of all the 

 peat mosses not situated at a great elevation above the river levels. It is 

 well known that at no very remote period vast forests occupied the 

 northern shores of the Wear, which were inhabited by large herds of 

 deer. This has been thoroughly established by the discovery of many 

 animal and vegetable remains during dredging operations undertaken to 

 remove the accumulation of many centuries' tidal deposits, drift, and 

 debris obstructing the river about 2 miles west of Sunderland. 1 From a 

 depth of 10 feet below the bed of the river there were dredged up the 

 trunks and branches of trees, chiefly magnificent specimens of oaks, and 

 large quantities of the antlers of red deer, remarkable for their size and 

 good preservation. 2 The forest formerly existing in Upper Teesdale was 

 also the haunt of red deer, and it is chronicled that on Rood Day, 1673, 

 above 400 deer were destroyed by a severe storm of snow. Winch 

 observes that ' On the elevated moors between Blanchland, at the head of 

 the Derwent, and Wolsingham, on the river Wear, . . . the roots 

 and trunks of very large pines (Pinus syhestris) are seen protruding from 

 the black peat moss, being exposed to view by the water of these bogs 

 having drained off and left the peat bare ; but this tree is no longer indi- 

 genous with us. It may be worthy of remark that the Scotch fir does 

 not at this day attain the size of these ancient pines, though planted 

 in similar situations, even though the young trees be protected and the 

 plantations situated at a lower level.' 



In the upper parts of the ' dales ' many of the cultivated plants 



1 An account of the Ancient Remains found in the bed of the Wear at Claxheugh, contributed 

 to the Transactions of the TynesUe Naturalists' Field Club, 1858-60, by F. H. Johnson, M.D. 



8 An old Saxon poem, referred to the Danish-Saxon period preceding the Conquest, gives a 

 description of the Wear which helps us to realize the existence of an ancient sylvan vegetation very 

 different from any known at the present day (Hickes' Anglo-Saxon Grammar}. 



' A river of rapid waves ; 

 And there live in it 

 Fishes of various kinds, 

 Mingling with the floods ; 

 And there grow 

 Great forests ; 

 There live in the recesses 

 Wild animals of many sorts; 

 In the deep vallies 

 Deer innumerable.' 



38 



