198 peesident's address, 



and enjoyed an evening's walk in the outskirts of this pleasantly 

 situated town. After the arrival of the first train from New- 

 castle, the morning being very fine it was arranged to have 

 a long drive up the Swale valley to the little mining town of 

 Reeth, in preference to visiting the points of interest about Rich- 

 mond, which most of those present had seen on former visits. 

 About two miles up from Eichmond the valley suddenly becomes 

 contracted, and lofty cliffs of sandstone, shale, and limestone 

 rise high above the river on each side — the more abrupt cliffs 

 on the north being generally capped with a prominent stratum 

 of grey limestone. The sides of the valley also become densely 

 wooded, and the Swale winds its tortuous course, concealed for 

 the most part and embedded among the thick umbrageous foli- 

 age. The valley maintains this character for several miles, so 

 that very little can be seen but the hanging woods and the top- 

 most moorland cliffs, and the traveller might easily suppose 

 himself at times surrounded by an amphitheatre of hills clothed 

 with thick woods almost to the top. Several miles before 

 arriving at Reeth the valley widens a little, side streams enter 

 the main valley, and the hills on each side are rounded down. 

 The slopes on each side are less covered with wood, and stretches 

 of meadow land intervene and vary the features of the dale. 

 In our rapid drive there was little to be seen but the dense 

 woods on either side and the tops of the moorland cliffs. Space 

 was left on the banks for very few wild fiowers — those observed 

 were several of the St. John's Worts, the Giant Harebell, and 

 the Hackberry, now in fruit, the tops of its branches covered 

 with the large webs of one of the Geometer Moths, the larvse of 

 which had now passed into the pupa or cocoon stage. The total 

 absence of the Foxglove in this limestone district was remark- 

 able, as not a plant was seen in the whole distance traversed. 

 At the base of the old walls on the outskirts of Reeth, as in most 

 other lonely villages, there was a plentiful crop of the old-fash- 

 ioned spinach Chenopodiuni Bonus-Henricus. 



The mining town of Reeth is situated at the junction of a large 

 tributary stream which drains the wild and lonely mining dis- 

 trict of Arkendale. Being built of grey sandstone, with roofs 



