THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



325 



woods, and it must be easy for any of them 

 to establish themselves in suitable localities. 

 The labourers on the docks believe that 

 some of them breed year after year among 

 the stacked timber, and I have heard several 

 of them speak of a certain cargo of French 

 wood that swarmed with JEdilis, which they 

 say continued to breed for several years. ! 

 I scarcely think it possible that they will | 

 feed on the dead wood the second year, for | 

 it is then quite dry ; and I know nothing j 

 of their duration of life as lar\*a;, or whether j 

 the beetle lives over the winter to deposit 

 its eggs in spring. If it does, they might be 

 placed in newly imported wood, and thus | 

 breed. But while this timber is taken all ' 

 over the country there need be no wonder 

 if some species, previously unknown, man- 

 age to establish themselves. 



UPPER WHARFEDA.LE. 



ITS PHYSICAL FEATURES AND 

 FAUNA. 



(The following paper from the Leeds 

 Mercury, is so exactly our idea of how a 

 local fauna should be described, that we 

 have great pleasure in laying it before our 

 readers. Our numerous Yorkshire readers 1 

 will also be glad to have it for future refer- 

 ence, and it will serve as an introduction to 

 an account of the club excursion which has 

 been promised us.) 



" In view of the approaching meeting of the 

 Yorkshire Naturalists' Union at Grassington 

 (on the August Bank Holiday Monday), it 

 will be of considerable interest to give a 

 summary of what is at present actually 

 known of the animals which inhabit the 

 district generally. More especially is it 

 desirable when it is remembered that 

 Upper Wharfedale is one of the districts 

 embraced in the scope of the forthcoming 

 " Fauna of Leeds, Wharfedale, and Nidder- 

 dale." a book which the Leeds Naturalists' 

 Club has in preparation, and which it is 

 hoped will see the light before the close of 



the present year. The object of the excur- 

 sion spoken of is to effect something towards 

 the working out of a more complete list of 

 the natural productions, so far as a single 

 day's research by a goodly number of com- 

 petent naturalists can produce to the attain- 

 ment of such an end. One of the most 

 powerful incentives to discovery is a previ- 

 ous knowledge of what has already been 

 done; consequently it will facilitate the 

 labours of the Y^orkshire naturalists at 

 Grassington to furnish them a base from 

 which to commence their investigations, by 

 bringing to a focus the whole of the infor- 

 at present on record. 



Upper Wharfedale — the district known 

 by that name to the naturalists of Leeds 

 and Bradford, who for the future propose to 

 undertake the investigation of its natural 

 phenomena, in the absence of resident natu- 

 ralists — includes so much of the drainage 

 area of the Wharf and its tributar>- streams 

 as extends from the sources on Cam Fell 

 and the eastern slopes of Penyghent down 

 to a point about a mile north of Barden 

 Tower. In area it includes about no or 

 more square miles of elevated country, 

 guarded by high hills, of which Penyghent, 

 Buckden Pike, and Great Whernside reach 

 an altitude of 2,000 feet or more, while 

 others do not fall very far short. The in- 

 fant Wharfe, after draining Langstrothdale 

 and Kettlewelldale, and its earliest tributar>' 

 of importance — the Skirfare, which receives 

 the waters of Per> ghent and Hesledine Gills 

 and of Littondale — efi"ect the'r junction not 

 far from the imposing Scar of Kilnsey. 

 From the confluence the Wharfe, now a 

 swift and noble stream, flows through 

 lovely green pasture lands, past the sylvan 

 beauties of Netherside and Grass Wood, 

 and over rocky limestone beds, and through 

 a narrow gorge at Ghaistrills (the " Strid " 

 of Upper Wharfedale) to Grassington and 

 Burnsall, presenting at every st^e of its 

 course scenes of fresh beauty and interest. 



