3 66 



4< 



NATURAL HISTORY OF UPPER TEESDALE. 



Upper Teesdale, | Past and Present : ( A Handy Reference Book, | with 

 Eight Illustrations and a Map. | By | James Backhouse, F.L.S., F.Z.S., 

 F.R.H.S., | Member of the British Ornithologists' Union, &c. ; I Hon. 

 Curator of Zoology to the Yorkshire Philosophical Society ; \ Author of 

 A Handbook of European Birds." | London : [ Simpkin, Marshall, 

 Hamilton, Kent & Co., Ltd. | Barnard Castle: | W. R. Atkinson, Market 

 Place. | 1896. [8vo, paper boards, pp. vi. +89; preface dated May 1896: 

 Price is.]. 



The work now lying before us is the production of one who unites 

 to a close and intimate personal familiarity with the district a kind 

 of hereditary knowledge of it. For the Backhouses, son and father 

 and grandfather alike, have all been so associated with the very 

 name of Teesdale as to make it almost seem their own. To them 

 we owe the first discovery of many of those rare flowers which make 

 Upper Teesdale unique among valleys in the North of England, 

 a Mecca for the botanical pilgrim. To the Backhouses also — and 

 particularly to the author of the present book — we owe what we 

 know of the Vertebrate fauna, and it is by their assiduity and 

 knowledge that the caves in the district have been investigated. 



It is therefore with peculiar pleasure that we turn to the book 

 now before us, and that we note the prominent position which 

 scientific matters take in it, occupying as they do five chapters out 

 of the nine. 



The first four chapters are topographical and descriptive, the 

 first being general, the second treating of Barnard Castle and Bowes 

 and the Tees Valley line, the third describing Winch Bridge, High 

 Force, Micklefell, etc., and the fourth taking us to the very dale- 

 head and introducing us to Langdon Beck, Cauldron Snout, 

 Highcup, Harwood, Yad Moss, Cross Fell, and Alston. 



The remarkably interesting Geology and Palaeontology of the 

 district are treated of in the fifth chapter, including the Teesdale 

 Cave and the human skull found therein. Chapter six is 

 archaeological, and discusses early historical remains, coins, etc. 

 Chapter seven deals with 4 Teesdale Forest,' defining its one-time 

 limit, etc. The eighth chapter gives a brief— too brief— discussion 



of the Teesdale Flora and its striking peculiarities, while the ninth 



chapter is a much fuller account of the Avifauna of Upper 

 Teesdale, giving a complete list (with interesting and valuable 

 annotations) of the birds which inhabit the district. The concluding 

 pages are devoted to practical information as to railway access to 

 the district, and an index. 



A lithographic view of the High Force makes a striking and 

 effective cover-design, and the book, London-printed, is neatly gotup. 



Naturalist, 



