TBANSACTIONS OF SECTION D. DEPT. ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY. 681 



M.-ash, l,17o. Main Valley of River Burn, thorn 1,175. In Lonq Gill, bircb, 

 1,175; M.-ash, 1,250. BaMone Gtll,M.-ash, 1,275. Steel House Gill, M.-aah and 

 bullace, 1,375. Hioer Burn, M.-ash, 1,225. Thorny G-'/-ff«e, M.-ash, 1,200. Deep 

 Gill, M.-ash, 1,255. The above indicate the highest living tree of any Idnd in each 

 case. 



Woo Gill, h?izel, 1,350; birch, 1,275; salix, 1,375; M.-ash, 1,550. 

 Now let us compare the above heights with the elevations at which their remains 

 are found buried in the peat. 



Thus the highest livinfi Birches are in Long Gill, 1,175, Barnley Beck, 1,125, and 

 High Scar Backstone Gill, Nidderdale, 1,100. But birch-stems are found in the peat 

 up to 1,725 feet, and doubtless higher. The highest living Hazel is in Woo Gill, 

 1,350 feet, but there was a time when the hazel not only grew but ripened its nuts 

 at 1,G50 feet, on the moor east of Henstone Band at the head of Gate-up Gill. 

 Here I found buried in the peat hazel-nuts, many of which were bored by a maggot, 

 proving that the nut came to maturity, and the kernel was eaten out by the worm. 

 The highest living oaks are two in High Scar, Bakstone GiU, 1,100, and Fox 

 Crag ditto, one oak, 950. Birk GiU, 900. These are solitary instances, and are all 

 very small ; but there are many oaks in the peat between Blagshaw Gill and 

 Brown Kigg, 1,000 to 1,250 feet in Nidderdale. 



From the remains of the lost forest we can distinguish two zones : that of oaks 

 up to about 1,200 feet, and that of birches above that level. 



Of the valley proper, the birch and thorn covered the upper part of the sides of 

 the dale, or the ' edge,' while in the bottom there floiu-ished sycamore, ash, holly, 

 hazel, alder, wych elm, and near the dale-head the lieckberry (bird cherry), as 

 proved by their remains found on the scars, &c. 



The peat, which overwhelmed the ancient forests, is not now forming, but on 

 the whole is now undergoing a process of destruction. Except in the ' whams ' 

 (swamps), the conditions for its formation do not exist. In summer, on the higher 

 ranges, the peat becomes very dry and dust-like, when it is swept away by the 

 strong winds. Near Great Whernside acres together of bare rock have been thus 

 denuded. 



The peat on these moors does not run to a great thickness — about 6 to 8 feet is 

 the general observation — a fact which reduces our conception of the length of time 

 required for its formation, and gives some colour to my interpretation of the words 

 ' shaw ' and ' with,' occurring on these moors. 



With (O.-Norsk. Vidr, a wood) does not occur in Nidderdale above Hartwith, 

 but in Washburndale 'B lay ^vithYJ hum' (0.-N.iri'fl7«?Hr,aswamp), is over 1,000 feet 

 on the open moors. Blay means bleak, so the Blaywith Wham would thus mean 

 ' Bleak IF oofZ Szvamp.' There are no trees there now, and there are none at 

 Giimwith. This raises the curious question. Were there trees there since the Danes 

 settled in this part? Some light may be thrown upon the answer b}^ the parallel 

 case of 'Shaw,' a wood (O.-N. -S'AJ///-), a word apparently exclusively Danish in this 

 sense as it is common in JutishKent. (O.-N. Skogr. Swed. Sko(/,'D-a,n. Skov, a wood.) 

 T);e analogous words A.-S. Sciia O.-N. Skaiggi Dut. Schawe mean shade, shelter. 



Shaw, meaning wood, is common in the ballads and Chaucer, as in the beautiful 

 lilies in * Robin llood ' — 



' In somer when the shawes be sheen, 

 And leves be large and lang.' 



It is therefore interesting to note that ' shaw' occurs many times on the open 

 moors, far above the present limits of tree-vegetation. In such positions ' shaw ' 

 is now generally a boggy or rocky place associated with wet ground. 



There are no trees or bushes in Shaw Gill, 1,200 to 1,580 feet, or Shaw Gill Sike 

 1,150 to 1,400 on Feather Shaw, 1,250, West Shaw, 1,200, Foulshaw Crags, 1,000, or 

 on Shawsridge near Greenhow Hill. I cannot doubt that trees of some kind gave 

 the name to all these places when the Danes took possession of them 1,000 years 



10. Eeport on the Marine Fauna of the Southern Coast of Devon and 

 Cornwall. — See Reports, p. 198. 



