LITHOLOGY. 59 



bounded some of them by hedges of Whitethorn and Black- 

 thorn, and some of them by walls the art of building which 

 must certainly require a special apprenticeship, for the blocks, 

 which are this same compact calcareous gritstone, are of all 

 kinds of sizes and of all kinds of shapes except absolutely 

 round, and yet no cement or mortar is employed. The pro- 

 minent mosses of the walls are Leskea sericea and Tortula ruralts, 

 the prominent lichens Parnielia cakarea znd murorum, Collema 

 nigrum^ Biatora rupestrisd^nd. the pitted Lecidese and Verrucariae. 

 Upon the plateau there are no natural streams or ponds, nothing 

 but artificial specimens of the latter, glaringly artificial in their 

 primness of contour, the work perhaps of the professional 

 ' artificial pond-maker ' whose sign is to be seen at Helmsley. 



The main gill is approached in this direction down a narrow 

 gradually-sloping gorge, dark with overshadowing woods, with 

 mainly, now that the Primroses and Wood Anemones have gone, 

 a. thick undergrowth of the Geums and Allmm itrsinii/n, and 

 with abundance of the tall succulent branching stems and lurid 

 digitated leaves of Helleborus viridis and here and there bushes 

 of Actcea spicata scattered amongst it, the sombre greenness 

 pleasantly relieved by Lychnis and Stellaria, by patches of fresh 

 bright blue which Myosotis sylvatica and the Hyacinth furnish, 

 and the bright golden globes of a colony of TroUiiis which has 

 established itself at the bottom of the wood. 



The principal gill is one of a thoroughly calcareous stamp, 

 such an one as these hills of the Middle Oolite abound in. The 

 steeply sloping bank upon the north-west is not less than 300 or 

 400 feet in height and is covered thickly with aboriginal wood, 

 the Oak the principal tree, but far more of Hazel than anything 

 else. Ash, Hawthorn, Wych Elm, Salix Caprea, Elder, Maple, 

 Honeysuckle, Roses and Brambles. The soil over the sub- 

 jacent rock is thin and gravelly. There is a glorious under- 

 growth of Ricbiis saxatilis beneath the bushes, plenty to yield a 

 large basketful of Rock Brambles at fruiting-time, and abundance 

 of Origanum vulgare and wiry grass and sedge {Brachypodium 



April 1888. 



