332 president's addeess. 



The only direct conclusion we drew was that the writer's experi- 

 ence was probably limited to Wensleydale, and that it was not 

 the broadest view that could be taken on the subject. So we 

 passed on without further comment or enquiry, and followed 

 the main road leading due west, not far from the north bank of 

 the lire, to Hardrow, Mr. Home pointing out any object of 

 interest on our road. We carefully examined all the very 

 old walls on the road side, but observed only specimens of 

 Cystopteris fragilis (Bladder Fern), "Wall Eue, Saxifraga tri- 

 dactylis, Sweet Cicely, and the Cardamine amara (Bitter Cress). 

 Most of these were common, but we failed to find the fern we 

 most sought for and which was thirty years ago common in 

 upper Wensleydale, the Scaly Spleenwort, though during our 

 stay a specimen, in a very inaccessible situation fortunately, 

 was pointed out to us. As many fine specimens of this fern 

 and the Green Spleenwort, of great size, were formerly sent 

 me from this district, where both were reported to be in con- 

 siderable abundance, it is but fair to conclude that severe win- 

 ters and the destruction of old walls and other conventional 

 changes have assisted, with a little help from fern-maniacs, to 

 almost extirpate these plants in "Wensleydale. 



' ' The only historical site pointed out to us, about a mile from 

 Askrigg, was the spot where the monks of Jervaulx Abbey were 

 first stationed in Wensleydale, in the Abbey of Fors, near the 

 foot of Sargill Beck, at a place called the Grange. An old flat- 

 headed doorway and portion of a trefoil window built into a 

 wall, forming one side of an old barn, are the only remnants of 

 the old Abbey left. Near this spot is a waterfall or force, of 

 considerable beauty in wet weather, which seems to suggest the 

 origin of the name Fors. 



"Perhaps what would attract and strike the attention of a 

 geologist most in the upper part of Wensleydale are the peculiar 

 physical features, due to the occurrence of long, liearly parallel, 

 and horizontal scars of mountain limestone, which occur at dif- 

 ferent levels on both sides of the valley for miles, and are only 

 broken where tributary lateral streams have cut or worn out a 

 more or less deep and wide channel on the lateral range of hills. 



