Pickanl : Botanical and other Xotes at Arncliffe. 427 



yards of where I was standing behind a wall and trees, perfectly 

 .unconscious of my presence. 



Following the road from Litton to Halton Gill, and thence 

 to Foxup, a small hamlet just under Penyg-hent Low Man 

 (2231 ft.), I was most interested to find on the banks of a rill 

 ■descending to the Foxup Beck the Yellow Mountain Saxifrage 

 {S. ahoiiies), a new plant for Littondale, and there was still 

 more of it growing with Draba incana, Saxifraga hypnoides^ 

 .and Alchemilla vulgaris var. montanum (another rare variety), 

 •on the higher Yoredale rocks of this end of the mountain, 

 •clearly in the Wharfe Basin. There was none of it on the 

 ■corresponding cliffs of the High Man (2273 ft.), in the Ribble 

 basin, but S. oppositifolia instead. 



On grit rocks of Penyghent was some Parsley Fern, though 

 rare, and amongst the heather, from 1500 to 2100 ft., an 

 immense abundance of Ruhus ChamcEniorus, veritably the 

 ' Cloud-berry,' from the covert of which I disturbed a solitary 

 Dotterel, now so scarce amongst the Yorkshire hills. 



I noted fifty birds during the week end, and was glad, 

 amongst others, to see the Buzzard both on Penyghent and 

 Arncliffe Clouders, also a fine Merlin on Fountains Fell. A 

 ■couple of Cole Titmice were making a disturbance in a hedge 

 near Litton, and the Redstart seemed very common. To these, 

 amongst the more interesting, I might add Ring Ousel, Snipe, 

 Golden Plover, Curlew, Waterhen, Sandpiper, and Black-headed 

 •Gull. I saw a large Lizard on the summit plateau of Penyghent 

 at about 2150 ft., which was in colour a mottled green. I was 

 struck with the apparent scarcity of mammals, the only one 

 I observed being the Rabbit, many of which, in the neighbour- 

 hood of Arncliffe, were black, and a few white. 



This district must have a charm for the would-be poet 

 .also, for the visitors' book at the hotel is filled with original 

 ventures, and extracts from Longfellow ; and it is in tender 

 memory the revered spot where one of the most famous nature- 

 loving and gentle-hearted men of the nineteenth century, 

 Charles Kingsley, stayed during the time when he was planning 

 his delightful book ' Water Babies,' where he describes the 

 mystical climb of the little chimney sweep, Tom, step by step 

 iind ledge by ledge down the steep face of limestone scarp, 

 at the Cove of Malham, until he reaches the fresh sparkling 

 streamlet below, which was so soon to transform him by its 

 magic touch into a fairy of its glistening depths. 



And in our Littondale 'becks' and 'gills' we see again and 



igo6 December i. 



