70 peesident's addeess. 



Two or three eager members had pushed on and actually reached 

 the summit of the mountain, hut came down wet through ; others 

 took shelter in an old shop, where for three hours we varied our 

 positions by walking about th.e buildings, watching the progress 

 of the storm, and discussing our future prospects. Between five 

 and six the thunder ceased to bellow round the hills, the rain 

 fell less violently, and the clouds began to disperse. The greater 

 number advised a return borne through the rain, and a general 

 stampede began along the road towards Alston under umbrellas 

 and waterproofs. Two or three however, unwilling to be frus- 

 trated in their object, set out under the guidance of a miner for 

 the top of Cross Fell, which looked provokingly near. By the 

 time we reached the ^'Grentleman's "Well," a strong spring of 

 water very cold even in the hottest summer day, the weather 

 was fine overhead. Scrambling up the debris of the "Grind- 

 stone Post," which outcrops along the northern edge, we soon 

 found ourselves on a very fiat surface, of many acres in extent, 

 in the centre of which rose a slight mound, and here the ord- 

 nance surveyors had erected, or perhaps reconstructed, a cairn to 

 mark the summit. The view to the far west was limited by the 

 storms that had prevailed, but below the valley of the Eden, with 

 that river winding like a silver thread, and the Beacon Hill 

 above Penrith and all between, were spread out at our feet. 



The height of Cross Pell seems insignificant viewed from the 

 east, as the ground rises so gradually, and it is surrounded by 

 eminences more than two thousand feet high; but from the valley 

 of the Eden, the abrupt escarpment of the Pennine range and 

 the height of the Pell, nearly three thousand feet, can be better 

 appreciated. Crossing the desolate top, which is covered all over 

 with conical moss-hillocks, and almost destitute of vegetation, 

 we visited the cairn which caps the little mound, supposed by 

 the geological surveyors to represent the lowest bed of the Mill- 

 stone Grrit series. We took a hasty glance from the south side 

 at the head of the Tees, now swollen with the turbid waters of 

 the storm, and the Yorkshire hills, rising high on the south bank 

 lower down, then we crossed over to the east end, and begin- 

 ning rapidly to descend visited one of several peculiar masses 



