

145 



THE WEST SWALE DISTRICT (No. 8). 



The Swale belongs entirely to Yorkshire, its summit of 

 drainage being the county boundary on the west. . The head of 

 the dale is encircled by a crescent of continuously elevated 

 land. The summit pass is 1,700 feet above the sea-level, and 

 the greater part of the ridge for many miles round upon each 

 side of it enters into the Upper Zone. Brownber Edge, at the 

 head of the southern fork of the Greta, is 1,956 feet in height, 

 and Nine Standards Rigg, opposite Kirk by Stephen, 2,153 f'^^^- 

 Crossing the dale, we have on the south of it, Fell End 2,105 

 feet. High Seat 2,328 feet, and Ladies' Pillar 2,257 feet. These 

 three are in a line running north and south at the west end of 

 Swaledale, and are intersected by num.erous glens. On the 

 opposite side they slope suddenly, that portion of the dale of the 

 Eden which lies immediately beneath them not being above 900 

 feet in elevation. And south-east of these, at the western ex- 

 tremity of the ridge between Swaledale and Wensleydale, towers 

 the huge elephantine bulk of Great Shunnor Fell (2346 feet), 

 the second in elevation of the North Yorkshire summits. These 

 are all cragless, treeless, undulated sweeps of hill, with very 

 little to be seen amongst them to attract botanists* or geologists, 

 their surfaces a monotonous iteration of peat bog, heather and 

 swamp. But from any of the peaks excellent views may he 

 obtained of the wild mountainous country round the sources 

 of the Swale, the Yore, the Eden, and the Rawthey, and in the 

 distance, of the hills of the Lake country and Upper Teesdale. 



Below the milestone-like boundary which stands by the side 

 of the road to mark where the Westmorland township of Nateby 

 begins there is a peat bog from which the streams run in opposite 

 directions, in the ditches of which Ranuncuhis canosiis grows, 



* For the Nine Standards Rigg florula of the Upper Zone, see page 63. 

 Pot, Trans. V.N.U Vol. 3. K 



