Armitt : The Birds of Rydal. 239 



fairly at a level of 1,500 feet, and pursues a tolerably level 

 course on a valley bottom that drops imperceptibly till it reaches 

 a point almost parallel with Lord Crag- on one hand and Low 

 Pike on the other. Here it meets with a wall of rock that lies 

 right across its path — a massive, pyramidical wall, not high, 

 but even and smooth and regular as a breakwater made of 

 concrete. Xo better instance of the action of ice in a former 

 age can be offered than this wall of rock, ground and polished 

 to an even height by the glacier that no doubt once filled the 

 valley and poured its volume downward and over the obstacle 

 with irresistible force. Now the little stream turns sharp 

 against the wall and runs behind it, till it finds the crack itself 

 has worn at Hood-times or when perhaps at a higher level than 

 now. And by this it flings itself over the wall in a long fall, to 

 settle at the base in a deep pool known to natives by the strange 

 name of Buckstones Jam. Once beyond this natural lock, that 

 has kept its level high, the beck knows no quietude, but leaps 

 down the sloping- screen that shuts off Rydal Head from the 

 Rothay valley in a series of waterfalls that are among the shows 

 of the county. 



(3) When Rydal Beck has entered the Rothay, the last 

 naturaldivision of our parish is reached. This division consists 

 of a flat and fertile valley bottom, enclosed on three sides by 

 moderate heights. Cut off completely from Rydal Water, it 

 seems to form a basin, filled in with alluvial matter, to itself. 

 But it is in fact only the head of the W T indermere basin ; and 

 the great lake, shut off by rocky knolls, is at present only half 

 a mile beyond our boundary limit, while once, no doubt, it 

 reached further up the flat. This valley bottom, formerly a 

 marsh, has been carefully drained by the farmer, and its water- 

 channels walled and g-uarded ; and it forms the only deep arable 

 land of the parish. Its smooth, green surface is diversified by 

 hummocks of rock that stud it like islands ; and once maybe 

 they were islands in the wide stream of ice that has ground 

 their up-valley sides into pyramidal and smooth contours, and 

 left their down-valley sides sharp and broken. All of them are 

 crowned with trees, remnants of a forest that was older than the 

 age of man's settlement and his careful tillage of the soil. 



[In compiling the following list, I have received the generous 

 aid of all who had information at their disposal ; but it un- 

 doubtedly suffers from the fact that it is based on a short 

 experience only. Mr. Wykeham-Martin, who has kindly sent 

 me notes, left the parish, after a seven years' residence, in [896, 



1902 July 1. 



