Rankiti : The Peal-Moors of Lonsdale. 157 



As was noticed in the case of the swamp moors of lacustrine 

 origin, namely the tendency for the succession of the associa- 

 tions to continue towards the associations of an entirely different 

 complexion, so here over the ancient fens or swamp moors, 

 crept the heath moors, with their abundant bog-moss and 

 cotton sedge, finally covering all the liroad marshland, except 

 within the reach of the river floods and of the drainage from 

 the rising land against which the moors rose, on their outer 

 limits. (Fig. 4). 



Within the regimen of the heath moors, the succession of 

 associations continued, now a dominance of Sphagnwn, at other 

 times of Eriophorum, and at others still of Calliina, according 

 as the conditions of the stations varied. The sections of the 

 ]")eat, as well as the traditions of the district, show that imme- 

 diately previous to the present, rather dry association above the 

 moors, of Calluna and Eriophorum, there was a strong domin- 

 ance of Sphagnum species, resulting in a very wet surface. 

 The drying moor of Foulshaw is gradually being spread over 

 by self-sewn birches, and occasional Scots firs, forming a 

 second, if not a third, wood or thicket association that has 

 developed there ; the earliest at the base of the peat, the 

 other between the swamp moor and the heath moor, also of 

 birch and fir. (Fig. 5). 



For many centuries the mosses must ha\-e rendered the 

 valleys even more impassable than the sea or sands, too miry 

 for safe foot-travelling, and not sufficiently so for keels. Near 

 Gilpin Bridge there still remain short lengths of a corduroy 

 road, sunken in the peat, across which at some time or other 

 traffic passed. How early the peat moors were dug we cannot 

 say, but it is probably correct to assert that the greater part of 

 the clearance has been effected in the last century or so. To-day 

 in place of water is cultivation of an intensive character, which 

 makes the still remaining moors, inliers of an ancient landscape, 

 the more striking. The largest moors yet persisting, as Foul- 

 shaw, near Grange, and Ellerside Moss near Cartmel, probably 

 the most extensive lowland moors in England south of Solway, 

 still continue to grow, and thus permit of an alliance with the 

 much wider moors of North German^^ which have been so ably 

 monographed by Graebner, Weber and others. (Fig. 6). 



UPLAND PEAT MOORS. 



While the peatlands of the plains and valleys were at one 



1910 Apl. I. 



