OTHER FEATURES OF THE xWOOR. 
17 
pours which the hills attract, to run over their sides, 
and these sources of moisture, together with the 
abundant springs which rise through the seams of 
the granite, keep the scanty herbage of the country 
well watered, whilst, the low temperature originat¬ 
ing in the bleak winds, helps likewise to^keep this 
vegetation from the scorching, to which that in the 
cultivated lands is most usually subjected in the 
height of summer. The moorland grass therefore, 
wherever it occurs in tolerable plenty, feeds quan¬ 
tities of cattle at that season. Extensive beds of 
sedge are also produced in some spots, and are 
annually gathered for making mattrasses, while 
lastly, vast and valuable accumulations of peat are 
found in various parts where perpetual moisture en¬ 
courages the constant growth of the aquatic plants 
from which it is derived. This substance, besides 
obtaining a sale as fuel, is used by the gardeners in 
Plymouth and elsewhere, for the rearing of peculiar 
shrubs requiring a highly nutritious earth, such as 
this substance extensively assumes the character of 
throughout the moor. One other beautiful, but 
inferior subject of commerce afforded by the moor 
is the common heath or ling covering the commons 
surrounding this tract; it is used for the purpose 
of making brooms, which are really neat and pretty 
'objects. 
From the circumstances of the accumulation of so 
much vapour by the Dartmoor hills, and of their 
originating such abundance of subterranean, and 
superficial springs, bogs and morasses are numer¬ 
ous, as also small streams, which soon unite and 
constitute the splendid and romantic rivers for 
which our county is so celebrated. 
This granitic tract of Dartmoor, has been computed 
to contain 130,000 acres, but the quantity of sterile 
land is yearly diminishing by the grants of inclo¬ 
sures in various directions. From the exposure of 
D 
