3866 THE ZOOLOGISY. 
the road, is a natural wood of birches. At the top of the sides of 
the valley for miles are remains of extensive thorn scrub. Lower 
down the sides and along the bottoms, many sycamores. ‘The 
valley has, however, been much cleared of trees by agriculturists. 
Birch and “ eller” (alder, Dan. eller) were formerly extensively 
exported from the dale to supply the bobbin-makers, but this 
trade has nearly ceased. Some years ago, when the “scrogs” 
(Dan. skrog, trunk, stump) were cleared off Thorpe Edge to make 
room for a large plantation of larches, known as “ Thorpe Planta- 
tion,” a great deal of charcoal was burnt, and was sent to Masham 
to heat the combs of the woolcarders: this was not commonly 
practised, however, in the dale. Blue Burnings Wood, which 
formerly existed near the spot (1000 to 1200 feet) consisted of 
birch and hazel scrub. Bleberries abounded there: this being 
a most capricious plant in the matter of ripening its fruit, it may 
be well to state that the site is a steep hillside running north-west 
and south-east, and facing south-west, at the elevation given, the 
slope of the ground being 1 in 44, or an angle of fourteen degrees. 
Most part has been ploughed within the last seventeen years. 
Turnips and potatoes succeeded there ; oats would hardly ripen, 
sometimes not at all. Blue Burnings now belongs to different 
proprietors; part is glebe land. Before the enclosure the same 
proprietors ran sheep on it, each having so many gates. 
The peat on the moors, viewed broadly, is now undergoing a 
process of destruction. Except in the “ Whams” the conditions 
for its formation do not exist. In summer, on the higher ranges, 
the peat becomes very dry and dust-like, when it is swept away 
by the strong winds, all along the lines of the dry beds of what 
are, in the autumn and winter, watercourses. This process is 
best seen in the ascent of Great Whernside from the south-east, 
where acres together of bare rock have been thus denuded. The 
villages have their common land on the moors from which the 
inhabitants may fetch peat. Middles Moor has one hundred 
acres of peat common for the village. The top spit of the peat 
is cut with a spade with a long bent handle, called the flaying 
(pronounced jleding) spade, into pieces sometimes a yard long and 
eight or ten inches wide. These strips are called “flouts.” They 
are not used for burning when “peats” can be got, but black- 
smiths use them for heating the tires of wheels. For this 
purpose they are better when cut from sandy ground, as the sand 
makes them grow hotter. 
