LUCAS : VESTIGES OF ANCIENT FOREST. 
371 
THORN— Nidderdale— High Scar, Backstone Gill, 1100; 
Greenhow Sike, 1050. East of Nidderdale— Cot Gill, 825 ; 
Sike from Sandwith Wham to Stock Beck, 800. COLSTERDALE 
—Long Gill, 1175; Scale Gill, 1100. 
JUNIPER— Nidderdale— Lul Beck, 925. 
HAZEL— Woo Gill, 1350. 
Dead Birch stems abound in the peat, from 1000 up to at 
least 1725 feet, as at Little Blowing Gill Beck, and Sandy Sikes 
Gill, and no doubt much higher on these same moors. (For full 
details see " Studies in Nidderdale," pp. 114, 115.) In like man- 
ner it will be observed that the highest living Hazel is in Woo Gill, 
at 1350 feet. But there was a time when the Hazel not only 
grew, but ripened its nuts, at 1650 feet, on the moor E. of Hen- 
stone Band, at the head of Gate-up Gill. There I found buried 
in the peat, Hazel nuts, many of which were bored by a maggot, 
proviug that the nut came to maturity, and that the kernel was 
eaten out by the moth before, in its immature state, it ate its 
way through the shell. 
There are many Oaks in the peat bogs between Blayshaw 
Gill and Brown Rigg, 1000 to 1250 feet ; and a very large Oak, 
30 feet long, was dug up at Biggin Grange, Kexmoor (550 feet). 
In Sykes Moss most of the buried trees are Oaks, Sealhs, and 
Birks. The Birk is easily recognised by its bark, and an old 
Sealh is known by its red wood,— the wood of the young Sealh is 
white. The stumps of the Birch are often preserved erect, but 
sometimes, though apparently solid, they are so rotten as to fall 
to powder at the touch. 
If we except Woo Gill, the present general limit of the Birch 
cannot be placed higher than 1100 feet, which gives a general 
lowering of the Birch limit of some 500 feet during the formation 
of the peat. Taking the Oak at 950 feet, the lowering is 300 feet. 
The Hazel at its extreme limit, 1350 feet, gives a minimum low- 
ering of 300 feet, but the general lowering is much more than 
