THE DERWENf DISTRICT. 20^ 



The next three considerable dales of the arenaceous hills, 

 Rose Dale, Farn Dale, and Brants Dale, all penetrate the moorland 

 mass to the high anticlinal ridge which runs from Burton Head 

 eastward to the Peak cliff. The 'summits amongst which they 

 take their rise, proceeding along the ridge from east to west, 

 are as follows: Wheeldale Howe, 1043 feet; Shunner Howe, 12 12 

 feet ; Loose Howe, 1419 feet; Ralph Cross, 1409 feet; Wester- 

 dale Moor, 1422 feet; and Burton Head, 1489 feet; and 

 digitations of hill which attain the Middle Zone stretch out for 

 several miles southward between the dales. Of the three. 

 Rose Dale is the broadest and most populous, Brants Dale the 

 least so. In Rose Dale the ironstone of the Lower Oolite is now 

 extensively quarried. It is conveyed to the Cleveland blast- 

 furnaces by a line of railway which runs across the top of the 

 moor from the mines to the head of the southern fork of the 

 Leven. The streams of the three dales are called the Seven, 

 the Dove, and the Bran. Each of them runs in a distinct dale 

 through the calcareous range, which everywhere presents towards 

 the north a steep escarpment, and is here not more than from 

 two to four miles in breadth from north to south. The town of 

 Kirkby Moorside is situated upon the southern edge of the lime- 

 stone not far from the Farn Dale stream. Kirk Dale, celebrated for 

 its cavern, is the lower part of the dale of the Bran where it breaks 

 through the calcareous hills. Higher up this is called Sleight- 

 holme Dale, and nowhere in the district have we a finer sweep of 

 aboriginal wood than extends along the slopes of this stream, 

 whilst from Sleightholme Dale round the escarpment towards the 

 north as far westward as Bilsdale stretches a continuous belt of 

 larch plantations. From the Vale of Pickering the view up any 

 of these wooded hollows of the wide extent of bleak moorland is 

 very fine. Next comes Riccaldale, which does not penetrate far 

 north of the calcareous range. The main stream of Rye rises 

 amongst the northern moorlands, at a very short distance from 

 the high escarpment which overlooks the Cleveland valley, and 

 a western branch rises not far from the escarpment which over- 



Jan. 1889, 



