188 president's address. 



followed a guide into the recesses of a darksome cave, through 

 chinks in the limestone walls so narrow that the more bulky and 

 corpulent members of our party could not follow. Those left 

 behind followed the upper banks of the ravine, admiring the 

 splendid tufts of the Hart's-tongue and other ferns, far down, 

 out of reach of destructive tourists. Then crossing this wonder- 

 ful piece of rock-cutting by a rustic bridge, the whole party 

 strolled along by fields and farms to the largest and most 

 pleasantly-situated village in this high part of the dale, and 

 situated, as its name Middlesmoor implies, on the moor between 

 the two chief forks of the valley. A fine view of the whole 

 lower part of Nidderdale was obtained from the churchyard, and 

 after a rest and luncheon in a country inn, a start was made 

 along a moorland road to the Goyden Pot or Pothole, a deep 

 sloping cavern in the main stream, where all the water of the 

 river Meld, under ordinary circumstances, enters, and travels 

 two miles underground, leaving its channel nearly dry, except 

 in winter storms and summer floods. At the time of our visit 

 the stream did not even reach this spot, but was all absorbed at 

 the Manchester Pot, further up the dale. Several of the more 

 active members availed themselves of a guide, with indispensable 

 "tenpenny dips," to explore the underground channel now dry, 

 from the long-continued drought of summer, for more than sixty 

 yards, until they heard water trickling along beneath the rocky 

 bed they had scrambled over. At Manchester Pot there was no 

 cavernous entrance visible, but the small stream loses itself 

 among the coarse gravel. 



The walk back to Lofthouse was by the margin of the nearly 

 dry channel, for small runners, fed by perennial springs, sup- 

 plied a pool here and there in the otherwise dried up bed. 

 Patches of Sweet Cicely, growing along the banks, and a few 

 other common autumnal flowers were the only plants observed. 

 The valley is too narrow and too much improved to be productive 

 of many botanical rarities, though, in comparison with more 

 northern valleys, it must indeed be considered as very well 

 wooded. 



Most of the members visited the Brimham Pocks, which are 



