Rankin : The Peat-Moors of Lonsdale. 155 



physical factors vmderlying and conditioning the two formations, 

 the swamp and heath-moors. Moors of this latter type have 

 received many designations from the variety of asi)ects in 

 which they have been regarded. According to the frequent 

 abundance of bog-moss, they may be termed S])hagnum Moors. 

 Yet few of the present day moors, whatexer were their imme- 

 diate predecessors, may be so labelled. Eriopliornm vaginatuni 

 is more commonly the dominant species, suggested in the 

 restricted title of Eriophorum Moor, as the dominance of 

 Calluna suggests the term Calluna Moor. The common 

 continental term, ' Hoch-moor,' or high moor, is derived from 

 the raised surface, especially noticed after heavy rain when the 

 moor swells like a sponge. This humping-up of the moss is at 

 times well seen on Cockerham Moss. The term that will be 

 used here — Heath Moor — has the advantage that within it 

 may be understood moors of various facies, whether dominated 

 by Sphagnum , Eriophorum, Calluna or Birch, in all of which 

 prevails a dominance of the physical factors of the heath — 

 insufficiency of inorganic ions and dissolved oxygen in a soil 

 water which further shows a decided humic acidit}^ producing 

 a physiological drought. 



The heath moors are the last phases in Nature of the process 

 of land formation by vegetation from open water. And so they 

 are to be seen best in the long closed-up lake hollows among the 

 mounds of glacial drift. Many such peat moors have been 

 cleared away, but here and there, representatives of the last 

 stages still remain. The peat deposits laid down about the 

 shores of the hard- water lake of Hawes Water near Silverdale, 

 when the surface was some seven or eight feet higher than to- 

 day, have been almost entirely removed. Close at hand, how- 

 ever, in the neighbouring basin of Burton Moss, once filled by 

 an extensive shallow-water lake, receiving drainage from the 

 ■' hard ' land about, sufficient deposits remain to give a good 

 idea of the succession of heath moor upon swamp moor. The 

 layers of the lower peat show not only the lowest amorphous 

 peat of fragmentary debris carried in from the reed belts, but 

 also the deposits of the reed belts of Phragmites and Cladimn, 

 as they encroached upon the narrowing waters of the tarn. As 

 the open water was taken in, the peat would seem to have got 

 drier, and the swamp to have been succeeded by a thicket of 

 Birch, possibly a variety of the Alder wood type. 



After this came in the heath associations, which continuing 



1910 Apl. I. 



