326 



THE YOUNG 



NATURALIST. 



skin, horns and all complete. Dressed in 

 this horrid costume he waylaid his fatuous 

 friend in order to frighten him. What 

 occurred was never rightly known, but when 

 the poor imbecile got home, and the laugh- 

 ing conspirators asked him if he had seen 

 the ghost, " Yes," said he. " and I have laid 

 him." Alarmed at the non-appearance of 

 the masquerader, search was made, and he 

 was found dead, stabbed to the heart. For 

 the first four miles the vale of the Balder is 

 highly wooded, the banks occasionally steep 

 and rocky, forming romantic dells, diver- 

 sified with sloping pastures of vivid green. 

 The roadsides are fringed with veritable 

 hedges of giant bell-flower [Campanula 

 latifolia) and fragrant meadow sweet (Spirea 

 ulmaria), just coming into flower a month 

 later than in our lowland woodlands. The 

 bramble now gives place to the wild rasp- 

 berry (Rubus idcBUs), with its tempting 

 scarlet fruit. The most conspicuous plant 

 in the pastures is the coarse horseknop 

 (Centaurea nigra), with its crimson flowers, 

 and the neat, much branched eyebright 

 (Euphrasia officinalis), attractive by its pro- 

 fusion of white-veined blossoms, A sudden 

 sharp descent now lands us at a most 

 picturesque mill, completely hidden by the 

 surrounding trees. The Balder, which here 

 flows over shelving sandstone rocks, is 

 spanned by one of the two bridges which 

 seems the only means of communication 

 betwixt its two banks throughout its entire 

 length. We are promptly met by the brisk, 

 brawny, sharp-featured, loud-voiced miller, 

 who volubly informs us that as the Stockton 

 and Middlesbrough waterworks are speedily 

 to disestablish his mill, by impounding the 

 water, and thus prevent him from making 

 the staff of life, with a keen eye for the 

 mainchance he has secured a license, dubbed 

 his house the Reservoir Hotel, still resolved 

 to make his living by a lawful calling, and 

 now offers entertainment for man and beast. 

 Discussing whether waterproofs and um- 



brellas should be left behind with the vehicle, 

 the miller recommends precautions, as it 

 often rains amongst the hills. He points 

 out the site of the projected reservoir.which, 

 when finished, must form an important 

 feature in the landscape. Ascending by a 

 rugged and toilsome track, past picturesque 

 farmhouses, every one guarded by watchful 

 collies, we pass a straggling aggregation 

 of houses where the inhabitants are slow 

 of speech, sedate in gait, and deliberate 

 in action, yet a wag remarks they are 

 always in a hurry (Hury being the name of 

 the place). We now come on a good road, 

 which runs the whole length of the dale 

 from Romaldkirk to the limits of cultivation. 

 But after the first mile, where we cross a 

 really romantic little dell, with a miniature 

 cascade.the steep banks are fringed with larch, 

 birch, and mountain ash, the berries of which 

 are now gleaming red amongst the feathery 

 foliage. After that the road becomes 

 monotonous in the extreme, stretching away 

 for miles without a tree or turning to break 

 the line, with two bare stone fences on 

 either hand, each surmounted ridge show- 

 ing another in the distance to be encountered^ 

 The vale now opens out considerably ; the 

 course of the stream far below can be traced 

 by its fringe of alders and birches. By the 

 scattered grey stone-roofed farmhouse an 

 occasional sycamore or ash may be seen, but 

 the oak and elm soon disappear, and of 

 woods there are none. To while away time 

 whilst we trudge along, speculation is rife 

 as to the causes at work which left the level 

 table tops with precipitous sides of Golds- 

 boro and Schacklesboro crowned with 

 heather, whilst the denuded slopes to the 

 valley's bottom are rounded and green. 

 The top of the ridge is formed of hard sand- 

 stone or millstone grit ; here and there we 

 see it quarried into lintel stones of por- 

 tentous size ; in the water-worn gullies are 

 seen black crumbling shales, giving delusive 

 hopes of combustible coal ; whilst the vivid 



