Rankin : The Peat-Moors of Lonsdale. 121 



with but little decay ; bare, unprotected peat in such areas 

 being the exception. Not only does the peat here maintain its- 

 own, but also continues to increase in thickness, by the growth 

 of Eriophormn vaginatmn, in the common type of moor, and of 

 Molinia and rushes in the rarer. 



In the low-lying districts, peat continues to accumulate 

 about the margins of tarns and lakes, as well as on the broad 

 peat moors when the drainage is only slow. On the hills, as 

 well as on the plains, the climatic conditions of rainfall and 

 temperature, conjoined with the factors of the soil, favour 

 the continuance of the growth of the moor associations, and 

 as a consequence, the accumulation of peat. However true it 

 maj^ be of other parts of England, it is not the case with Lons- 

 dale, that the climatic conditions of the present time are un- 

 favourable to the growth of peat. 



LOWLAND PEAT MOORS. 



The moors of the low-lying district may be divided according" 

 to the occasion of their development inlo two groups : that 

 including the deposits in and about tarns and other quiet sheets 

 of water, generally held up by glacial mounds — these are small 

 and scattered — and a second comprising the mosses developed 

 on the silt deposited in the long fiord extensions out of the Bay — 

 these are extensive. Before the clearance of the country, 

 there must have been many shallow-water tarns lying in the 

 inequalities of the ground moraine. Only a few remain, as 

 preserves for water fowl, and of the peat which filled up many, 

 but little persists. The latter group of still extensive moors, 

 were undoubtedly of wide extent and frequency in earlier 

 times, so much so that " Lake Lancashire," the name given tO' 

 much of the low-lying Triassic plain extending from Furness- 

 into Cheshire, was aptly applied to a country of meres and 

 swamps, of which the peat moors of to-day are the representa- 

 tives and descendants. 



Lake Peat Moors. 



Examples of this first group are to be met in different parts 

 of our area, some plainly in the making as about the margins 

 of sheets of water, others in the late stages of development as 

 yet undisturbed by man, and a few, no longer growing, but being; 

 dug for fuel. 



Swamps by the sides of streams, in the deserted stream 

 courses or filling-up shallow hollows more or less saturated with. 



1910 Mar. I. i 



