xvi YORKSHIRE: ITS PHYSICAL ASPECT. 



clear and sparkling streams, and beautiful and romantic dales, 

 this elevated region includes the main watershed of the North of 

 England, and within its limits and upon Yorkshire soil rise all the 

 great rivers of the north — Tyne and Wear alone excepted. The 

 steep western slopes are drained into the Irish Sea by the Eden, 

 the Lune, the Ribble, and their tributary streams ; while down 

 the broader valleys and more gentle inclines of the eastern slopes 

 flow the Aire, the Wharfe, the Nidd, the Ure, the Swale, and the 

 Tees, into the North Sea. 



The gritstone summits and limestone scars of this region are 

 the last refuge in Yorkshire of the buzzard, and amongst the last 

 of the raven and the peregrine ; the high moors are inhabited by 

 the red grouse, ring ouzel, merlin, twite, curlew, dunlin, snipe 

 and golden plover, while the dipper, grey wagtail, and sandpiper 

 are abundant on the mountain becks. The rivers and streams of 

 the district are inhabited by little else than trout, and such salmon 

 and sea-trout as are able to pass the dams and weirs which for the 

 most part bar their ascent of the Yorkshire streams. 



Of the very few natural sheets of water in Yorkshire this dis- 

 trict possesses three of the most important, Malham Tarn, Semer- 

 water, and Birkdale Tarn, besides a few others of smaller size. 

 Malham Tarn, 153 acres in extent and 1,250 feet above the level 

 of the sea, together with the limestone plateau on which it is 

 situate, is of special interest as illustrating the altitude to which 

 certain species will ascend, and its fauna has therefore been made 

 a special feature in the list. Here the wood-wren, redshank, teal, 

 coot, and dabchick nest annually, and it is the only locality in 

 Yorkshire where the tufted duck has been known to breed ; 

 while ichthyologically its fauna is remarkable for the malformation 

 of the trout, in all probability the result of isolation. 



Of the mammalian fauna which formerly inhabited this wild 

 and secluded mountain district but little is known. The dense 

 woods of the ' forests ' of Upper Teesdale, Richmondshire, and 

 Wensleydale, are known to have been the haunt of the wolf, red 

 deer, and other beasts of chase, of whose extinction little is 

 known, the actual records of their former presence being very 

 scanty. The wild cat, bear, and wild boar no doubt also existed 



