KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



131 



same time as ourself. We were transcribing 

 our thoughts, when the above communication 

 reached us. Feeble as is our effort, yet will 

 we let it appear. It will serve to cast a 

 brighter lustre on the more powerful pen.] 



THE CUCKOO. 



Hail ! beauteous stranger of the grove, 



Thou messenger of spring ! 

 How I Teaven repairs thy rural seat, 



And woods thy welcome sing ! 



What time the daisy decks the green, 



Thy certain voice we hear : 

 Hast thou a star to guide thy path, 



Or mark the rolling year ? 



Delightful visitant ! with thee 



I hail the time of flowers, 

 And hear the sounds of music sweet 



From birds among the bowers. 



The school-boy, wandering through the wood, 



To pull the primrose gay, 

 Starts, the new voice of Spring to hear, 



And imitates thy lay. 



Soon as the pea puts on its bloom, 



Thou fliest thy vocal vale ; 

 An annual guest in other lands, 



Another Spring to hail. 



Sweet bird ! thy bower is ever green, 



Thy sky is ever clear : 

 Thou hast no sorrow in thy song, 



No winter in thy year ! 



O could I fly, I'd fly with thee ; 



We'd make with social wing 

 Oar annual visit o'er the globe, 



Companions of the Spring ! 



Logan, 1781. 



NOTES BY A NATURALIST. 

 LIMESTONE SCABS. 



Carboniferous or Mountain Lime- 

 stone^ is, perhaps, one of the most plentiful 

 formations, and certainly not the least 

 valuable, in the north of England. Un- 

 doubtedly it yields in importance to the coal 

 formation ; and some may be even inclined 

 to prefer the chalk, or oolite, on account of 

 the prevalence of fossils in the rocks, and of 

 rare plants on the soil Few, however, who 

 have passed any time among the Scars of the 

 mountain limestone of Yorkshire or West- 

 moreland, will deny that, for beauty, in- 

 terest, and utility, this formation is inferior 

 to any. 



My first introduction to a regular scar of 

 limestone, was at Kettlewell. I had formerly 

 been in the region of magnesian limestone, 

 in Yoredale, and had passed through the 

 millstone grit of the lower part of Wharfdale. 

 The soft bath-brick-like composition of the 



former, and the hard gritty masses of the 

 latter, had become familiar to me ; and it 

 was with no small joy that I noticed, in 

 passing, the hard limestone rocks at Bolton 

 bridge ; and, after a few hardships, such as 

 all travellers, and especially naturalists, 

 endure, got sight of a fine level-topped hill, 

 crowned with a coronet of bare white rock. 

 This was Kettlewell Scar. The hill was 

 not more than four hundred feet high, and it 

 bears several interrupted terraces, or walls 

 of rock, of white weathered limestone ; the 

 whole surface being covered with broken 

 fragments of the same substance. The up- 

 permost terrace is continuous, with a road 

 round its base, much in the same style as 

 the radical road skirts the foot of Salisbury 

 Crags, at Edinburgh. The vegetation was 

 different from that of the places I had left. 

 The quantity of lime in the soil caused a 

 luxuriance of no common kind ; while the 

 rocks themselves were covered with lichens, 

 and their interstices filled with robust plants. 

 I happened, unfortunately, to visit this 

 locality at a very early season of the year, 

 when few flowers were out ; but one especially 

 attracted my attention — the Saxifraga tri- 

 dactylites, one of the least showy, but not the 

 least beautiful of the tribe. 



My next view of a Scar was at Hawse (I 

 have noticed it once before, in a former note), 

 and next again in the month of April, was a 

 visit to Ewbank Scar, about a mile from the 

 little town of Kirby Stephen, in the east 

 corner of Westmoreland. This Scar differs 

 materially from the others in appearance. 

 The hill on which it is situated, rises to a 

 greater elevation than does Kettlewell Scar ; 

 and from the top is a magnificent view, em- 

 bracing the high mountain known as the Nine 

 Standards, a portion of Stainmoor Fell, and 

 High Seat. The herbage was vigorous for 

 that season of the year, and numerous patches 

 of the stiff grass, Sesleria ccei'ulea, were to 

 be met with. The Scar is not to be found by 

 the stranger without some trouble, being 

 concealed by luxuriant trees ; but when found 

 it will never be forgotten. To those who have 

 been accustomed to see Scar rocks, running 

 along the sides or brows of hills, parallel 

 with the plane of the earth — this presents an 

 entirely new feature, being placed at an 

 angle, varying from about thirty to forty 

 degrees, or even more. The wall rock is 

 of very compact limestone, as also that on 

 which we tread in the ascent ; and it exhibits, 

 in its weather-worn surface, many fine shells 

 and madrapores. In many parts, especially 

 in the channel of the stream below it, the 

 old red sandstone conglomerate is to be seen, 

 either in situe, or in the shape of abraded 

 fragments. Indeed, it would appear, that 

 the limestone here rests on the conglomerate ; 

 and, in many instances, they can be procured 



