Various authors

“ The soil on the low lands was a red loam and clay; on the uplands and more elevated grounds, there was a sandy loam of a hazel colour, in some places of an extremely friable nature, and covered, generally, with a luxuriant vegetation. The same description of country prevailed to the distance of twenty miles, to the south of Mount Bakewell, when we crossed a vein of eight or nine miles of hard and barren looking clay ”

“ The only singular feature we met with, being an inland lake of fresh water, or perhaps a reservoir of the river, about 30 miles to the S.S.E. of Mount Bakewell, it varied in its breadth from sixty to seventy yards, and was five or six miles in length. Upon this we saw an immense number of ducks, swans, and other water fowl. We also found a small and beautiful animal, which appears not to have been before discovered: its size was about that of a squirrel, and its colour of a yellowish cast, with light and dark shaded stripes across the hinder part of the back ”

“ On the 3rd, after having allowed our horses sufficient rest, we left the settlement to examine the country, according to my instructions, for 50 miles to the N.W. This line for 18 miles from Mount Bakewell, conducted us, at some distance from the Avon, over a good pasture country, and afterwards for twelve miles along its banks, when its valley became more contracted and the hills more precipitous, though the soil still retained the same character. ”