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PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



shire, and from the name of the stream, the Dove, that flows through it. This is a valley 

 between high and precipitous limestone rocks, three miles in extent, the sides closely 

 approximating in some places, and again expanding. It seems as if it had been formed 

 at once by some convulsion of nature, which rent asunder what had before been a vast 

 compact mass, an impression often made by the appearance of valleys in mountain regions. 

 Sometimes their opposite sides present salient and re-entering points, which so exactly 



correspond, that if it were possible to bring them to- 

 gether, it seems as though they would fit into each 

 other, leaving little trace of their former separation. 

 Dovedale is approached on the west through a confined 

 defile remarkable for its deep seclusion, of which Dr. 

 Plot states, that the mountains are so high that in 

 rainy weather their tops may be seen above the 

 clouds, and they are so narrow, that the inhabitaftts, a few cottagers, in that time of the 

 year when the sun is nearest the tropic of Capricorn, never see it ; and when it does 

 begin to appear, they do not see it till about one o'clock, which they call Narrowdale noon, 

 using it as a proverb when anything is delayed. 



" Valley of Shadow ! thee the evening moon 

 Hath never visited ; the vernal sun 

 Arrives too late to mark the hour of noon 

 In thy deep solitude : yet hast thou One 

 Will not forsake thee : here the Dove doth run 

 Mile after mile thy dreary steeps between." 



In Dovedale itself, the high eminences that form the lateral walls of the valley the 

 projecting rocks assuming the most fantastic shapes sharp pinnacles and bold bluffs the 

 stream that flows at their base, now still, now murmuring, and dashing over a barrier of 

 stones that have fallen from the heights into its bed the wild flowers common to the 

 limestone stratum the copses of mountain ash all combine to form a scene that 

 satisfies at first sight, and increases in interest the more it is examined. 



When the valley form of the earth occurs upon a grand scale, there are points at which 

 the traveller loses sight of the masses of mountains that environ it. He beholds stretching 

 out on every side a tract of level land, or at least the diversity of hill and vale occurs 

 in such an unimportant degree as not essentially to disturb the idea of being in a flat 

 country. The powerful upheavals and submergences which give to mountainous districts 

 so peculiar a character of variety, have not operated upon these portions of the earth's 



