Sonth-Western Part of Somersetshire, 339 



south, the highest and wildest part being known by the name of 

 Exmoor Forest. In appearance and structure it is very analogous 

 to a great part of Devonshire and Cornwall, and maybe considered 

 as the termination of those schistose rocks which prevail so much in 

 these counties. It is divided into several ranges of hills, distin- 

 guished by particular names, the most conspicuous of which are 

 Dunkery beacon, Brendon hill, Croydon hill, Grabbist hill, 

 North hill, and the Quantock hills. The longitudinal direction of 

 these is, with the exception of the Quantock hills, nearly east and. 

 west ; there are numerous lateral branches from each central ridge, 

 forming small steep vallies, or gullies, which terminate in the 

 great vallies that divide, and are parallel to the principal ranges. 

 These gullies, called Combes in the country, when richly wooded, 

 form some of the most striking features, of the beautiful scenery 

 for which this coast is so celebrated. The Quantock hills, although 

 cut off from the main body of this mountainous tract by a wide cul- 

 tivated valley, may, in a geological point of view, be considered as 

 strictly belonging to it, for the range itself and the Intervening 

 valley are formed of the same rocks as the country to the westward. 

 This apparent Insulation, and the peculiar beauty of the range, mark 

 them as a prominent feature in the country ; they are no less re- 

 markable from the varied scenery they afford, and the magnificent 

 • prospect that is seen from their summit. The name is generally 

 applied in the country, as it is in the Ordnance map, to a range 

 of about eight miles in extent from north-west to south-east, and 

 which is in fact the highest and most conspicuous part. From the 

 south eastern extremity, the mass is divided into several distinct 

 ridges, all composed of the same materials as the Quantock hills 

 strictly so called, and which spread out in the form of a fan, having 

 one extremity at North Petherton, and the other at West Monckton, 



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