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DESTRUCTIVE HABITS OF THE ANTLER MOTH. 
(CHARGE AS GRAMINIS). 
Though the devastations committed by the larvae of this moth in our island do 
not appear in general to bear any comparison with its ravages in the Swedish 
pastures, yet when, from the failure of some of the checks appointed for keeping it 
within proper bounds, the species is left to increase unmolested, its effects are very 
apparent. 
Some years ago (in 1824, I believe), during the spring and early summer, the 
herbage of a large portion of the level part of the mountain of Skidclaw, near the 
well which most tourists visit on the ascent, previous to climbing to the summit of 
the first Man, comprising at least fifty acres, and extending some distance down the 
western side of the mountain, was observed, even from the town of Keswick, to 
assume a dry and parched appearance ; and so marked was the line, that the pro- 
gress made by the larvae down the mountain could be distinctly noted. 
Nor was the change of colour of the herbage the only thing that attracted the 
attention of the good folks at Keswick ; large flocks of rooks, attracted no doubt by 
the abundance of food which these larvae afforded them, were every morning seen 
wending their way to the spot, both from the rookeries at Lord's Island and other 
places in the Vale of Keswick, and also from those of distant ultramontane parts of 
the neighbourhood, and, after spending the day in preying upon the unfortunate 
caterpillars, on the approach of night, rising in one dense cloud, dispersing to their 
respective homes. 
Though their numbers must have been in this manner greatly reduced, yet in 
August the moths literally swarmed throughout the neighbourhood. So com- 
pletely was vegetation destroyed, that, on a visit to the spot in 1830, the extent of 
their ravages was distinctly visible, being very similar to the effect produced by the 
burning of heath, which is so much practised on our hills. — Entom. Mag. 
BOTANY OF CASTLE EDEN DEAN, IN THE COUNTY OF 
DURHAM. 
Castle Eden Dean is the largest and most beautiful of a series of romantic 
dells or deans, which consist, as it were, of immense clefts or chasms in that part of 
the secondary series of rocks termed the magnesian limestone. Small brooks, 
locally termed burns, run through them ; but, from the porous nature of the lime- 
stone, the waters seldom reach the sea ; and, in Castle Eden Dean, where the stream 
is larger, and fed by two or three small rivulets, at the distance of perhaps a mile 
apart, the supply poured down by one disappears, and in one place very suddenly, 
ere it reaches that part of the main watercourse where the next empties itself. In 
winter, however, the melting of the snow, and heavy rains, apparently convert the 
dry bed into a torrent, and, judging from the width of the channel, a large body of 
water must rush down the valley.' 
