30 
RAMBLES IN SEARCH OF FERNS. 
My companions seemed scarcely less pleased than myself, that our 
excursion had already been productive of new specimens, and we 
pressed on cheerily. The valley soon became more wild. We passed 
through a very sequestered village, called Gunnerside, and ascended 
some rising ground, from whence we had a splendid view of the wide 
hill-country stretching far away to the very borders of Westmore- 
land, and by a little divergence we caught sight of the pretty water- 
fall of Ivelet. The road led along the edge of one of the hills. We 
passed the mouth of a lead mine, and the miners whom we met greeted 
us with cordial goodwill, albeit their manner, as well as that of all the 
country people in that district, partakes more ot Saxon independence 
than of Norman civility. Honest, true-hearted people, we can 
dispense with surface-culture for the sake of your staunch goodwill ! 
A very rough road led down the hill : we crossed a romantic bridge, 
which spanned the waters of the Swale, and tying our ponies to a 
gate, we scrambled down a rocky wood, and arrived in due time at 
the foot of a deafening w'aterfall. The narrow gorge, shut in with 
rocks and wood, was wild and lovely in the extreme. The hills on 
either side were high, and the river seemed to have washed a passage 
for itself upwards of a hundred feet deep ; only a sturdy block of 
mountain limestone seemed to resist the further encroachment of the 
insidious waters, and so they were compelled to pour over it in the 
manner they were now doing. They indemnilied themselves, however, 
for its interruption by digging a deep hole immediately below it. into 
which they hoped some day to upset it. Esther unpacked the basket, 
and we ate our sandwiches with great relish, drinking from a little 
spring which was bubbling from the rock. 
“ Look about quickly, said my cousin, “and find what is to be 
found ; for I wish to return in good time, that I may show you 
the Cockle quarry.” 
I began to search closely among the rocks, and was soon rewarded 
by finding several plants closely resembling the Asplenium Tricho- 
manes. They varied in having the stem green instead of brown, the 
