THE ZOOLOGIST. 
THIRD SERIES. 
Vou. 111. SEPTEMBER, 1879. [No. 33. 
THE NATURALIST IN NIDDERDALE. 
By Josepu Lucas, F.G.S. 
Iv Yorkshire there are three well-known hills that bear the 
name of Whernside, all about 2000 feet in elevation. Two of 
these—Great Whernside, 2300 feet, and Little Whernside, 1984 
feet—lie together, fourteen miles south-east of the third Whern- 
side, which is near the head waters of the Ribble, the Lune, the 
Ure, and the Wharfe, on the backbone watershed which sends its 
waters to the North Sea on the one side, and the Irish Channel 
on the other. Great and Little Whernside lie near the head- 
waters of the Cover, a tributary which joins the Ure at Middleham, 
twelve miles north-east from its source; and the Nidd, another 
tributary of the Ure, which joins the main river near York, 
thirty-five miles south-east from its source. On the west, Great 
Whernside looks down upon the village of Kettlewell, in the 
far-famed dale of the Wharfe, and up the lovely Langstrothdale ; 
whilst above these, in the midde distance, looms the stupendous 
Pen-y-gent, having the truncated sugar-loaf shape characteristic 
of all the more conspicuous eminences on the Pennine chain. 
This part of the valley of the Wharfe derives its beauty from 
being cut deeply into the mountain limestone, whose regular 
terraces and lines of cliffs form one of the most pleasing features 
in the dale. Though this limestone reappears in the valleys to 
the east, it is too low in their beds to give a character to the 
scenery. With these exceptions all the hills and slopes are formed 
in the millstone-grit formation, which ranges on a huge anticlinal 
line from Derbyshire into Scotland. It is this formation that 
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