YORKSHIRE: ITS PHYSICAL ASPECT. xvii 



there, but of them no record remains. The marten possibly still 

 survives, as within quite recent years examples have been killed 

 at Buckden and Azerley ; and probably the last remnant of the 

 ancient fauna is to be found in the small herd of red deer which 

 are still preserved in the Deer Park at Bolton — doubtless the 

 lineal descendants of those which roamed in vast herds over the 

 whole district in days gone by. 



The Craven Pasture-lands. — Immediately below the 

 North Western Fells, which are abruptly terminated to the south 

 by the steep and occasionally precipitous descents of the Craven 

 and Pennine faults, succeeds a comparatively low region, under 

 600 feet in elevation, with an undulating grassy surface and low 

 rounded hills, in places rising into fells which reproduce on a 

 smaller scale the leading physical characteristics of those of the 

 north-west. Through the green pastures of this uninteresting 

 countr}', of which the peewit is the characteristic bird, the Ribble 

 and the Hodder cut their way in the form of narrow, well- 

 wooded, sheltered, and productive ravines, which give some 

 charm to this otherwise monotonous country. 



Formerly constituting the famous forest of Bowland, this dis- 

 trict is chiefly of interest as the last part of the county in which 

 the wild white oxen survived. A herd was for a long time per- 

 petuated at Gisburn Park, but the last was killed in 1859, on 

 account of the degeneration of the race, resulting from many 

 centuries of interbreeding and isolation. In this district also are 

 the only localities for the natterjack toad, which here occurs 

 sparingly, and for the whiskered bat, of which a single specimen 

 was taken — the only one known for Yorkshire. 



The South-Western Moorlands. — The summit ridge, 

 broken and irregular among the fells of the north-west, and inter- 

 rupted by comparatively low ground south of them, begins again 

 near Keighley and Ilkley, and is carried southward by a broad and 

 continuous band of elevated and monotonous rolling heatherland, 

 which extends along the county boundary as far as Derbyshire, and 

 attains its greatest elevation — 1859 feet— at Holme Moss. These 

 unbroken stretches of dreary moorlands — unrelieved save by 



b 



