THE NATURALIST IN NIDDERDALE. 367 
In the process of gathering peat they first cut slices the shape 
of a thin brick, about eight inches or so long, in May. These they 
call “peats.” The peats are laid to dry and harden on the moor 
a few hundred paces from the place where they are cut. After 
about a fortnight the cutters “set” them, which is standing three 
pieces together, one piece on its side edge, slightly leaning over 
towards two others resting endwise against it. After another 
fortnight they “hut” them, which is setting six or eight more 
peats round these, and laying two or three flat on the top to shoot 
the rain off. After a time, sometimes as much as a month more, 
they pile them into stacks, which are called “ruckles.” Of 
course all this has to be done in the dry weather. If a person 
puts off getting his peat till late in the season, he runs risk of not 
having any for the following winter, and indeed this sometimes 
happens. It is useless to try and get them when the wet season 
has once set in. The process of gathering his peats occupies 
a man for a period not complete under about two months. 
To the botanist the district of which Nidderdale forms a part 
possesses a fourfold interest. While its higher parts ascend into 
the arctic region of Watson, its lower portions lie far down in the 
agrarian zone. The line marking the upper limit of grain crops 
divides the district into two parts, in the higher of which many 
northern types occur, while in the lower we have representatives 
of the Midland and Southern English, and of the Germanic 
types of distribution. The district lies upon the border-land of 
several provinces, both as regards zones of elevation and areas 
of distribution. 
The Germanic is represented by the rare Primula elatior, or 
oxlip, which ranges up to 750-feet east of the Nidd, but up to 
900 feet or more in Wharfedale; and in Wharfedale by the still 
rarer and more beautiful lily of the valley, Convallaria majalis, 
which grows in the woods near Netherside in large beds like 
garlic, and at Arncliffe. 
The Southern English type is represented by the daffodil 
(here a rare plant), Narcissus pseudo-narcissus (which grows at 
Azerley, at 300 feet), Colchicum autumnale (in meadows by the 
Ure near Tanfield, 200 feet), Huonymus europeus, the spindle tree 
(one bush by the Ure near Low Mains, in Masham parish, 250 feet, 
exceedingly rare); while to the British English type, or those 
which, though occurring throughout Britain, are yet more plentiful 
in the southern counties, belong herb-paris, Paris quadrifolia 
