Clarke and Roebuck : Washburndale. 



9 



■which are collected into three great reservoirs for the supply of Leeds. 

 By far the larger portion of the area drained by Washburn is elevated 

 undulating moorland, clothed with coarse grass and bents, and in- 

 cluding great tracts of heatherland towards the higher levels. 

 Scooped out of these moorlands are the picturesque and narrow 

 valleys through which flow the Washburn and its affluents. The 

 cultivated lands are of no great extent, and do not reach further up 

 the dale than the little hamlet of West End. 



The infant Washburn rises at an elevation of about 1,300 feet 

 above the sea-level, on Craven Moor, to the S.E. of and not very far 

 from Stump Cross Cavern. For the first two miles of its course it 

 is but a small peat-stream, trickling through monotonous flat grassy 

 moorlands, devoid of visible life save when in summer they are 

 frequented by such lovers of solitude as the curlew and the golden 

 plover, the snipe and the lapwing. After entering the moorlands 

 known as " Katty White's Allotment," it flows through low bracken- 

 clad hills and receives several small tributaries, those of its right 

 bank draining the slopes of Pockstones Moor. Here the life on its 

 margins undergoes a change, and in spring one observes the sand- 

 piper flitting with butterfly-like flight, uttering its merry note, almost 

 worthy the name of a song ; the ring-ouzel, too, perched on some 

 conspicuous boulder, pours forth monotonous notes, while the dipper 

 finds a congenial home on the rocky portions of the banks. Here also, 

 in the season, fluttering among the rushes on the swampy margins, 

 may be noticed the pretty little heath-butterfly and the chimney- 

 sweeper moth, and not only here, but in similar habitats all the way 

 down Washburn side. ^ • . 



On leaving the monotonous and somewhat dreary moorlands, the 

 course of the river becomes extremely picturesque and beautiful as it 

 flows through a gritstone boulder covered channel, abounding in deep 

 trout-pools, and flanked by steep declivities clothed with coarse grass 

 and bracken, diversified and relieved by grey crags and tufts of purple 

 heather. On the right bank in one place (at about 900 feet in 

 elevation) is a hanging plantation of tall firs, which on the July day 

 of our visit proved (for such an isolated locality) quite an oasis of bird 

 life. Here, in a very few minutes, were noted the spotted flycatcher, 

 the redstart, tree pipit, willow-wren, chaffinch, wren, marsh tit, and 

 others. Lower down are here and there stretches of swamp by the 

 stream side, and as West End is approached we come upon a series 

 of wall-like cliffs of shale. At West End the Washburn receives its 

 most important feeder, the Chapelshaw Beck, which flows down a 



