president's address. 11 



and straightway took the carriages which were in waiting to save 

 four or five miles of uninteresting turnpike, thereby shortening 

 a somewhat heavy day's walk. Alighting at the end of a bye- 

 road the walk commenced with a short pull uphill to Gormire, a 

 curious little tarn about three-quarters of a mile in circumference, 

 lying in a great hollow underneath Whitestone Cliff. This hol- 

 low is probably the result of a huge landslip, perhaps as far back 

 as the glacial period. The lakelet and its banks are of much 

 interest to the botanist as the habitat of Potamogeton heterophyllus, 

 P. prcelongus, Pilularia globulifera, and Lysimachia thyrsiflora. 

 Some of these, together with other less rare plants, fell into the 

 hands of the party. The adjacent cliff is no less interesting to 

 the geologist, presenting as it does an excellent section of the 

 Oolitic beds capped by a crag of calcareous gritstone. Following 

 a somewhat indefinite and circuitous track to the summit of the 

 ridge a panorama of striking beauty lay around, which has been 

 thus graphically described by one of our most valued members, 

 Mr. J. Gr. Baker, of Kew — " Immediately beneath are the preci- 

 pice and the lake, and the steep embankment, covered with 

 thickets of brake and blackthorn, and thickly strewn with fal- 

 len piles, confusedly upheaped, of massive and angular rocks. 

 From Boltby Moor southward to Hood Hill, a pleasant, undu- 

 lated, wooded tract extends ; and beyond, the broad central 

 valley is spread out like a map from the Tees southward as far 

 as York, with Thirsk and Ripon marked conspicuously, and the 

 lines of railway easily traceable by the smoke of passing and 

 repassing trains. And beyond stretch the western moors, the 

 huge bulk of Penhill looming in the front to shut in "Wensley- 

 dalc like a barrier, and the higher Great Whcrnside Peak, on 

 the south of it, for a focus, from which the undulated lines of 

 hill stretch north and south till they are lost to view in misty 

 distance." 



Descending the ridge on the further side by the main road 

 the Hambleton training stables were soon reached, and attention 

 was divided for an hour between Lord Faversham's stud and the 

 luncheon which was set out at the adjoining hotel. The road 

 thence, as far as llicvaulx Abbey, though varied and picturesque, 



