author:John Gilbert Baker

“ We have in this list most, or very nearly all, the very species which make up the gregarious swamp-heather-land vegetation of which we have spoken as covering, with us, such wide tracts of surface. Of the four kinds of rock—limestone, porphyry, slate, and sandstone mixed with shale, that in the North of England form hill-masses on a grand scale, there are none from which these plants as a class are excluded, though it is amongst the sandstones that the ericetal species especially attain their greatest luxuriance and frequency. ”

“ To the upper limits in Northumberland and Durham of the various cultivated plants we have paid special attention, because it seems likely that many of them are grown successfully with us under lower temperatures than they are anywhere else in the island. There is a great contrast in the height to which houses and cultivation reach between the Cheviots and the Durham and South Tynedale hills, owing, no doubt, to the broad open dales and more gradual slopes of the latter, and the attraction of their mineral treasures. ”

“ Of the slate rocks we have no large or characteristic development within our bounds, but we have, near at hand, in the Lake district, a very considerable range of hills, where beds of this class cover wide surfaces. Unlike the porphyry and basalt, the slate rocks exclude absolutely the special limestone plants; but like the porphyry and basalt, they are much less heathery than the sandstone, with but little peat upon their surfaces, and with clear transparent streams, and some of the pascual plants do not ascend so high amongst them as with the limestones. ”

“ For several miles its watershed ridge on the north forms the boundary between England and Scotland. The upper part of the dale has entirely the characteristic Cheviot aspect—a narrow grassy hollow, with a stony unenclosed moorland road, at the bottom a brawling mountain streamlet, excellent for trout-fishing, grassy hills rising steeply from this on either bank, very little actual crag, and what there is usually down by the stream-side, but often great sweeps of porphyritic debris stretching down the banks, flecked with green of brake and purple of foxglove. ”

“ The winter is not materially colder at Newcastle than at London; but all the other seasons are, though the difference, when expressed in figures, is probably much smaller than any one who has not studied it as a question of figures will be likely to suppose. The summer is warmer in the interior of the south-east of England than anywhere else in Britain, rising in some places to an average of a little over 60°. The autumn, both in the north and south, comes very near to the average of the whole year, being generally a little above it. ”

“ Not only do the glaciers on the Alps, in Iceland, and other mountain regions, polish and striate surfaces over which they move, but even the ice-covering of an extensive area of land with a gentle slope, such as Greenland, produces similar effects by slowly moving down to the sea shore; and it is probable, too, that the great icebergs, some of which are 4 miles in circumference, and 1800 feet high, would, when grounding and moving along the sea bottom, also polish and striate rock surfaces. The love of simplicity has, perhaps, led theorists to attribute too much to one cause. ”

“ There are a few species which with us are either peculiar to the porphyry and basalt, or more abundant about them than anywhere else. Mr. Tate has mentioned most of them already, and I may add to his list Polemonium cæruleum as peculiar and as preferent, Spergularia rubra, and Filago minima. Of the Flora of our basaltic crags, the following list, which contains all the species noted upon the face, and on the slope, and amongst the debris of the dike, where it stands out conspicuously amongst the low moors west of Kyloe, is a fair illustration. ”

“ Between Haltwhistle and Hexham we have what is usually called South Tynedale, a hollow 15 miles in length, with the hills rising from it gradually on both sides. On the north the most striking feature is the basaltic dike, which in some places reaches a height of 700 or 800 feet above sea-level, forming a decided ridge across the moor from west to east, with an escarpment towards the north which, in several places, consists of a cliff 20 or 30 feet in depth, as at Kyloe, with great heaps of angular slate-coloured basaltic debris scattered over the embankment below it. ”

“ The consequence is, that along the whole coast, exposed as it is to the full force of the cold breezes of the east, trees of any kind can attain to a moderate height and luxuriance only in sheltered situations; and no doubt, the same reason causes our springs to be later, and our climate to be more unfavourable for herbaceous plants that love warmth and shelter, in comparison with Yorkshire and the Midland Counties, than the mere figures of temperature indicate. ”

“ The stream flows from an opening half-way down between this cliff and its counterpart on the opposite side, forming, not a large waterfall, but one where nature has made the most of the volume of water she has had to work with, for the the cliff, contrary to the ordinary plan in the North of England cascades of small side-streams, projects at the base considerably more than at the ledge, so that the water falls down an irregular slope of hard gritstone rock, the jagged projections of which break it into foam and spray, and innumerable sparkling eddies. ”

“ When the thermometer sinks down to freezing-point all vegetation is suspended, but the degree of heat at which different plants begin to grow is very various. This is a matter of the highest importance, and one that should be understood clearly, that all degrees of temperature below a special point, a point which is high up in the scale for some species, low down for others, do not help a plant to grow, to elaborate its sap, to develop its leaves and flowers, to perfect its seeds. ”

“ The cliff is dark-coloured basalt, resting upon a mass of dark-coloured indurated shale, and that upon limestone, and when the stream is full the waters flow upon both sides of the massive angular crag which overlooks the main descent. On the Durham side of the river the slope is covered by a large plantation, principally of spruce, and on the Yorkshire side the moor reaches down to the edge of the cliff. ”

“ The western hill shuts out the view of the Harbottle fir-woods and upper part of the Coquet valley, but on the right the long line of coast from the Aln to the Tyne can be clearly seen; and due south a wide tract of low undulated moory country across the Wansbeck and Tyne to Kilhope Law and the Durham fells, and further west the similar valleys of the Reed and North Tyne, with the Lake hills far away over them on the distant horizon. Eastward of Rothbury the watershed ridge on both sides of the valley declines rapidly, and soon assumes the character of low cultivated country. ”

“ The streams of these ravines join at Southernknow, 3 miles below which is the finest of the low-level Cheviot water-falls, Heathpool Linn. On the south is a dry bell-shaped hill, 1700 feet in altitude, and on the north a porphyritic crag sweeps down suddenly into the stream, contracting it for a space of 30 or 40 yards into a narrow rocky channel. The rocky banks are overgrown by bright-green shade-loving mosses, and over-shadowed by ash and elm; and a natural wood of oak, rowan, and birch extends along the slope of the southern hill. ”

“ The top of the higher hills is covered with peat and yields a coarse grass; but on their slopes, and on hills of less elevation, a fine grass grows well adapted for sheep pasturage. Though in the valleys, and ravines, and sheltered nooks several plants of rarity and interest flourish, yet this range, considering its extent, elevation, and composition, has not a rich Flora. Some plants, peculiar to igneous rocks, will be noticed when treating of the basalt; but others, which are confined to the Cheviots, have their habitat there more from elevation than from the mineral character of the rock ”

“ Though some of the posts or sandstones are thick, one being 84 feet, yet the proportion of shales is greater in the Coal Measures than in the Mountain Limestone. Assuming the total thickness of these measures to be 2000 feet, then we have 80 feet of coal, 960 feet of sandstone, and 960 feet of shale; and from this large amount of argillaceous matter, the soil of the Coal Measures is more moist and clayey than that over either the Millstone Grit or the Mountain Limestone, and the scenery, too, is of a tamer character, with fewer bold cliffs and high hills. ”

“ In any long-settled, long-cultivated tract of country, the modification which has been brought about by human agency is, of necessity, very considerable. Around the place where man fixes his dwelling swamps, moors, and woods disappear to make way for cultivated fields, roads, and gardens: the bog, heath, and shade-loving plants are restricted in their range or altogether exterminated; and the places which these occupied are filled up by the species which man grows for food or other purposes and the weeds which these bring in their train. ”

“ The wide extent of hill-country between the Cheviots and the Tyne, several hundreds of square miles in area, and the fells and the slopes of the west of Durham, with the exception just indicated, show everywhere in their contours and Flora the distinctive features of the eugeogenous type. We will, therefore, in the first place, attempt a detailed sketch of the vegetation of a hill of this kind. Our notes refer to Simonside, which was selected as being a fair typical representative of the shale-sandstone type of moor which occupies so large a proportion of the northern English counties. ”

“ Near to Durham, boulder clay, containing large polished and striated blocks, overlies stratified sands, which are about 30 feet in thickness. Excepting at Tynemouth, where Mr. Howse found small pieces of Cyprina Islandica, a marine shell still living on our coast, I know of no fossils which have been discovered within our district belonging to the boulder clay era.
So far as is at present known, moving ice is the only natural agent which produces such dressed surfaces; and therefore it may be inferred, that during the boulder clay era, the North of England had an arctic climate. ”

“ The Lindisfarne Dike has a course from eastward to westward, but not straight. It crosses the south part of Holy Island in the direction of south 85° east, and is seen two miles seaward, forming the Plough and Goldstone rocks, on which the Pegasus was wrecked. On the west side of the island the dike is exposed in a high cliff, and is there 120 feet wide, with a slope to the south of 95°; large blocks of limestone are enveloped in the basalt and highly metamorphosed, and the strata have a considerable upcast on the south side. ”

“ The highest point of the range of sandstone hills east of the Till is within a few feet of 350 yards, and the moors north of Rothbury, and east of the hollow between Alwinton and Alnham, reach about the same altitude. North of the Coquet there is a wide extent of high undulated moorland, that forms part of the great Cheviot mass, and begins just over Alwinton; but the 300 yards contour line only touches the stream considerably west of Windyhaugh. Between the Coquet and Reedwater the ridge reaches continuously into the Middle zone from the county boundary to Rothbury, a distance of 20 miles. ”

“ There is probably no piece of ground in Britain that produces so many rare plants within a limited space as Widdy Bank Fell. The distance from the Caldron Snout in a direct line due east to Langdon Bridge is 2 miles. The upper part of the fell is like an ordinary heathery moor, and the summit is only 130 feet above the head of the waterfall, which is 1530 feet above sea-level. ”