326 High Peak. 



of the Carboniferous Limestone, fine examples of which 

 may be seen in the country near Chatsworth on the 

 east, and between Chapel-le-Frith, Buxton, and Hart- 

 ington, and the neighbourhood of Leek, on the west. 

 Let anyone get to the highest limestone hills in the midst 

 of the area, and look west to Ax Edge beyond Buxton, 

 and east towards Eowseley or Bake well, and he will see 

 these escarpments, the nearest on either side, being 

 generally separated from the limestone hills by a deep 

 valley excavated in the soft Yoredale shales. This 

 special piece of geological anatomy is, indeed, character- 

 istic of the whole of the region, the limestone hills 

 being almost entirely surrounded by a valley, or 

 valleys, the chief watershed of which is near Castle- 

 ton on the north, beyond which, on the east, the Der- 

 went flows, well wooded, and still often bordered by 

 oaks, 1 while on the west the classic Dove runs down a 

 similar valley, till it enters that gorge of tall limestone 

 cliffs, which itself has cut some miles above Ashbourne. 

 Narrow dry dales are common in the Carboniferous 

 Limestone region, and probably some of these are the 

 relics of old underground watercourses, the roofs of 

 which have fallen in. 



In the northern part of Derbyshire, near Hathersage 

 and the High Peak, the Millstone grit lies in broad 

 plateaux, often from 1,000 to 1,200 feet in height. 

 Great part of the country, east towards Derwent Dale 

 and north of the High Peak, is called the Woodlands. 

 In places the steep hill-sides are still dotted with little 

 woods and single trees of birch, ash, mountain ash, oak, 

 and elder, the relics of the forest that once gave this 

 high country its name. 



1 Derwyn is Welsh for an oak, whence probably the original 

 name of the river. 



