OKEMENT 



IKE Dart and Teign and other moorland 

 rivers, Okement springs from twin fountains 

 and takes a divided course through many 

 a mile of heath and fern to waters-meet. 

 Her western arm embraces a scene as strange as any 

 upon Dartmoor, where, beneath Black Tor, the Valley 

 of Rocks shall be found, with harmonies wonderful 

 and wild of mighty boulders and gushing falls. Here 

 the rowan alone of trees lifts her head, and ferns in- 

 numerable nestle within the clefts and crannies of the 

 granite. The song of the river is the only music 

 beneath these enfolding and overhanging hills. Not 

 a mile distant one may stand on the crest of High 

 Willhayes — the loftiest land in England south of 

 Cumberland — and from this uplifted spot, picture 

 Okement afar as she twinkles and glitters to 

 the West and East. Her stream rises near a famous 

 abode of mystery and theatre of legend, where Cran- 

 mere Pool lies at the heart's core of the wilderness ; 

 and her sister, bubbling forth from the boggy side of 

 Okement Hill, gathers up the little Blackavon rivulet 

 upon her way, leaves Dartmoor under Halstock, and 

 falls in cataracts of light along the edge of forests 

 and the confines of furze-clad hills. 



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