THE MOORLAND PLYM. 
289 
THE MOOKLAND PLYM. 
BY MR. R. HANSFORD WORTH, C.E. 
(Read 19th December, 1889.) 
INTRODUCTION. 
Dartmoor is to-day a survival from the past, and bears upon its 
surface undisturbed the relics of an early civilization long since 
superseded. 
Although at present a practically uninhabited waste, its popula- 
tion in Keltic and pre-Keltic times must have been considerable ; 
perhaps, even, its hill slopes were preferred to the more sheltered 
but less open lower lands. 
As agriculture advanced, the slopes of Dartmoor suffered in 
competition with more fertile valleys, and thus the greater part of 
its surface has remained undisturbed since an early period. 
Although destitute of agricultural advantages, the valleys of 
Dartmoor were rich in tin ; and the presence of this metal con- 
tinued, within the last few centuries, to draw and retain a 
considerable population on the Moor. 
Fortunately, however, tin-streaming from its nature is not a 
work which destroys all traces of previous occupation ; and thus 
the remains now to be found extend from a very early to a 
comparatively recent date. 
Though never seriously threatened by cultivation, Dartmoor has 
suffered much at the hands of unauthorized prophets. It is 
strange that so many poets who have undertaken descriptions of 
the Moor seem to have considered that cultivation would be a great 
improvement on the present state of affairs ; and in several cases 
the wish has been the father of thoughts such as are expressed 
in the following lines : 
(i Yes, let the waste lift up the exulting voice ! 
Let the far-reaching solitude rejoice ! 
And thou, lone Moor ! where no blithe reaper's song 
E'er lightly sped the summer hours along, 
