X PREFACE 



Solway to join the strip of plain between the western fells 

 and the sea. 



The western fells, the Lakeland of the tourist, send their 

 waters mainly westward and westward by south to the sea : 

 the principal of these rivers, starting from the north, are the 

 Elne, or Ellen, the Derwent, with its affluents the Greta and 

 the Cocker, the Calder, the Eden, the Irt, the Mite, the Esk, 

 the Duddon, the Levens, and the Kent. Erom the eastern 

 side of these same fells issue the Eamont, Petteril, and 

 Caldew, all emptying themselves into the great river of Lake- 

 land, the Eden, which, rising in Westmorland, runs north- 

 wards along the eastern side of the plain of Cumberland, 

 and then turns westwards to the Solway. Its many tribu- 

 taries drain the eastern fells, while Esk and its tributaries 

 carry the waters from the northern fells to the Solway : 

 Waver, Wiza, and Wampool drain the alluvial flats south of 

 that Firth. With the exception of the three last, the rivers 

 of Lakeland are rapid, bright and clear ; shallows and pools 

 alternate : they are not navigable, except the Eden, and that 

 only for a short way. 



It must then be apparent to the reader that the Lakeland, 

 whose boundaries and physical characteristics have been 

 under discussion, must embrace a great variety of climate 

 and country : heathery grouse moors in the far north, salt- 

 ings, bogs, and mosses, along the Solway and the Irish Sea : 

 highly cultivated arable and pasture land in the plain of 

 Cumberland, richly-wooded river valleys and sheltered 

 combes, mountains, meres, tarns and fells, rocks and cliffs, 

 calculated to attract and shelter a widely varied fauna. 

 This fauna must have been much affected by the changes 

 drainage and cultivation have wrought. Scaleby, Solway, 

 and Bowness mosses, and Wedholm Elow, are but puny and 

 degenerate survivals of vast morasses which once covered the 

 alluvial flats bordering on the Solway, and stretched eastward 



