344 TYXEDALE ESCARl>iLENTS ; 



by jointing or lamination, pot-holes are 



round. Upon slopes, however, they al- 



^- ^^«». ways lengthen or travel downwards. On 



y^f • '^ %i isolated points, for instance — such as 



^^ ^ the boulder referred to — they move 



away from the highest point as from 

 Woodcut No. lo.-Aeriai Pot- a shcd, and break in on one another, and 



holes on a point of rock. Arrow , i j j. /? n n •! 



' . , , become worked out, nnally, on ail sides. 



indicates direction of prevalent •' 



winds. The lower side of their rim being 



channelled by the lapping over of the water, helps this move- 

 ment. 



In the eai'ly stages of pot-hole excavation, diilliug is actively at 

 work and the channel is in abeyance. But when the deepening 

 recess becomes more sheltered from wind and rain, eddying grows 

 feeble, and the ever-enlarging channel by and bye leaves it dry. 

 This advanced stage being reached, a block, such as the Queen's 

 Crag boulder, is found carved into a miniature Alps, with a cen- 

 tral gi'oup of points and lidgos, steep decli-vities, and a number 

 of comes — the last vestiges of the pot-holes. And the process 

 does not stop here. By the freezing and chemical action of what 

 moisture the channels still conduct, even these vestiges are ob- 

 literated, and the block becomes simply fluted like the Druid stone 

 of Swinbiu'nc (p. 308). Of this kind are the legendary comb- 

 marks on the great sandstone block, that projects like a huge 

 dog-tooth from the talus-slope of the Queen's Crag, attesting the 

 marital perversity of King Ai-thur, and at once the cleverness 

 and the size of Guinevere. Unfortunately for the tradition the 

 comb-marks indent the two sides of a squai*e.* 



Pot-holes perforating spreading surfaces of sandstone generally 

 differ from those described in lying well apaii;, and are of greater 

 width than depth. The drilling processes are set up from fewer 

 centres and are less active. On the Queen's Crag may be noted 

 such distinctions as there are between tliese and the close set 

 kind. Fine examples of this type are to be seen on a sandstone 



* In n fit of the nbuvo common masculine fidling Arthur flung tliift stone at his qucon 

 from the Kind's Crag »• she snt combing "her hock hair." She deftly turned it aside with 

 hor comb. It sUindt somt twelve feet high, and the teeth of the coinb were three feet long. 



