raised from one to two feet above the ground, and which have been partly protected from disintegration by the superincumbent grits. The scars also having worn back, many of the stones have been precipitated into the valley below even within present remembrance. In fact, many of those which we see obtruding their outlines against the sky, stand close to the brink of the scars, and must sooner or later come down. There is one immense boulder, 9 feet long and 9 feet high, and about 3 feet wide, which hangs in such a position upon a crumbled limestone base, and inclined at such an angle, that it looks almost as if a strong gust of wind would bowl it over the cliff. The largest stone which I have observed measures 49 feet in circumference and is 6 feet high, having a flat under-surface, with indications of striæ. Many behind it are curiously perched, and present odd forms. One very black-looking stone, in shape like a pyramid, is 6 feet high and 6 feet across the base, and reposes on three small blocks of limestone about a foot in height. Others sharp, angular, and weathered, and from twenty to forty tons in weight, stand on similar pedestals, or have fallen and got partly embedded in the turf. Amid the impressive quietude of the scene, as we go on surveying these wonderful monuments of the dim past, we feel, indeed, as if we were walking about the crumbling tombs and aisles of Nature's oldest cathedral ! Some idea of the time that has elapsed since the deposition of the stones may be obtained from the extent of denudation of the surface limestone on which they were originally laid. If, as it has been calculated, denudation of this rock goes on at the rate of one-twentieth of an inch in 50 years, or say 1 inch in 1000 years, those rocks standing upon their worn fragments of limestone 20 inches or so above the adjacent ground, must have been there, roughly speaking, a period of at least 20,000 years. But while this is, indeed, a vast period, it is but as the twinkling of an eye compared with the age of the dark, scattered rocks themselves. These, in point of time, are certainly the greatest monuments of antiquity our county possesses. ** The boulders gradually thin away to the west and north, and do not ascend to more than about 1200 feet, consequently we may infer that the hill, which rises northwards about 100 feet higher, has not been crowned with ice. Thus a further indication of the southward and descending movement of the frozen mass is apparent from the fact that while the rocks on the east of Simon Fell, a few miles to the north, are ice-scratched at an altitude of 1350 feet, there are no apparent signs of glaciation at Norber much above 1200 feet. * Of course, this is only an approximation, as the rate of weathering must entirely depend on local conditions of subaërial agencies, such as rainfall, &c. From a conspicuous stoop-like piece of limestone at the west end of the plateau we get a fine outline of the characteristic features of the surrounding country. Below us, to the south, runs the lovely valley into Ribblesdale, its deep depression marking the lie of the North Craven Fault. Above it are the Austwick Woods, Swarth Moor, and the double-horned top of Smearside. Far away beyond are the Langcliffe and Settle crags, backed by the looming summits of Lancashire, including Pendle Hill. To the north-west a stream of sunlight is parting the grey clouds that have settled upon the hoary head of mighty Ingleborough, while westward, looking over the well-wooded upland lake of Ingleborough park, the view into Lunesdale is exceedingly fine. Eastward rise the massive grey scars of Moughton, with their dense, long line of "screes," and beyond, in the point-blank of vision, old Penyghent just raises his cap to the bonny blue sky above. About 100 yards west of this limestone stoop we arrive at the edge of Robin Procter's Scar. This immense bluff of white rock, I may say, has borne its name now some centuries. A certain Robin Procter, of Clapham, was making his way home along the "tops" from Selside, and the evening being stormy and darkness coming on, he missed his way and fell over the precipitous cliff here and was killed. His burial is recorded in Latin in the Clapham parish registers. It may also be noted that the first baptismal entry contained in these registers is in the year 1595, and is of one "Robertus filius Robertus Procter," an ancestor, probably, of the above. From the edge of Robin Procter's Scar we look down into a hollow, somewhat oval in shape and walled round. This basin-like cavity, which is strewn with Silurian blocks, is the bed of an old lake, drained about eighty years ago. The gently sloping banks are dry and cracked, and in appearance not unlike the venation of a leaf on a large scale. The grass and soil look brown and poor, but I am told these have much improved of late years. The place is still known as Tarn Thwaite. Formerly in winter, when the lake was soon frozen, the youth of Austwick and Clapham used to come here at the close of the day's labours, and often under the bright rays of the moon, -"All shod with steel They hiss'd along the polish'd ice, in games And woodland pleasures, Or cut across the image of a star That gleam'd upon the ice." From this point the village of Clapham can be reached in about 45 minutes by descending into the Thwaite Lane opposite, which goes straight down under the tunnel of Ingleborough grounds and emerges at the church and waterfall. CHAPTER XIII. CAVE HUNTING ON INGLEBOROUGH. A land of caves, gulfs, and swallow-holes-Their origin and aspects scientifically explained-Cave hunting on Ingleborough-A wild tramp-Long Kin holes and cave-Marble Pot―Juniper Gulf—Simon Fell Caves-Alum Pot- Ascent of Simon Fell-The Druids-An ancient forest-Local place names. HE plateaux of carboniferous limestone, and "winding scars of our dales are famous for an infinitude of caves, caverns, holes, churns, kins, gulfs, pots, pans, or swallow-holes, as they are variously called, and which, while they are generally spread over Craven, are nowhere exceeded in number and interest than in the neighbourhood of Ingleborough. Their origin may be due in some cases to igneous movement, but the great factor in their formation has been water, operating in a variety of ways. These causes have been thus shortly summarised by Prof. Tiddeman in the Memoirs of the Geological Survey: 1st. The large horizontal flats of bare limestone which give the water every chance of finding an entrance. 2nd. The numerous vertical and long continuous joints which so easily lend themselves to water-carriage. 3rd. The rarity of beds of shale or other alternations in the great body of the limestone, which would tend to check the free passage of water. 4th. The rapid descent of the ground beyond the limestone plateaux, which gives steep gradients to the water-flow in the limestone. 5th. The height of the Fells above, which form condensers to atmospheric vapour and give a rainfall above the average. As Prof. Boyd Dawkins well observes, nowhere in the world can the subterranean circulation of water be studied with greater advantage than here. The caves, he says, rival in size those of Carniola and in Greece, and are to be found in all stages of formation. But a good part of Yorkshire geography is really unwritten, for there is so much concealed underground, that this branch of our knowledge can never be considered as complete until these various and complicated water-courses are known and mapped out. The subject, indeed, is peculiarly fascinating, while the rills and streams of the Yorkshire Scar country, with their long, subterranean passages, will provide the explorer, armed with rope and lights, with an amount of real adventure, and likewise tax his geographical skill in a similar, if less perilous manner, to that for example, of the pioneer of civilisation who, with tomahawk and gun sets himself the task of penetrating the dark, untrodden regions of far-off Africa! 66 Let us then go up into the heart of the hills, where there are a number of these mysterious chasms, but little known and rarely visited. Our route is that described at the end of the last chapter, by Clapham Bottoms, passing the church and under the long tunnels, ascending the road about three-quarters-of-a-mile, when it branches to Austwick by the extinct lake previously mentioned. But you should open the gate here, and keep straight on, descending across the depression of the Craven Fault, with the fine scars in front, and on the left, the deep, contracted wooded valley of Clapdale, with the mouth of the great Ingleborough Cave conspicuous, and old Clapdale Hall high above. This scene, viewed under the warm glow of a bright Autumn noon, amid the various tints of the trees, and the decaying brackens and shrubs upon the scars, reminds us not a little of Shelley's lines: The noonday sun Now shone upon the forest, one vast mass Of mingling shade, whose brown magnificence Passing shortly through a second gate, or rather the third from Clapham, you emerge on the wild open fell, with the wooded Trow Gill some distance on the left. The long lane we have come up runs about north-east by south-west, and by crossing the hollow northwards from here, and then walking up with the gully on our right, we shall arrive at a gate in the wall which crosses our route. Simon Fell (2125 feet) and Ingleborough (2373 feet) are now to the north-west, and the isolated bulk of Penyghent (2273 feet) to the east. This wall is continuous northwards with another, which separates the west fell from the large allotments on the east, and runs all the way up the south slope of Simon Fell. By following this long allotment wall up some 300 to 400 yards, you enter a hollow of bare limestone, on the left of which are two deep rifts known as the Long Kin Holes. The deepest is that to the north, but the summit aperture is insignificant, and partly enclosed with a tumble-down wall. A small stream descends the hole from Simon Fell, and flowing at a considerable depth penetrates the lower chasm, whence its course is not clear. The direction, however, is towards the Gaping Gill beck and Ingleborough Cave, but, except in flood the channel is almost dry. No attempt has been made to descend these fissures, as they are too narrow for some distance down to admit of a free passage. The northern one has been plumbed to a depth of over 200 feet, while the southern one, which is more open and longer, does not appear anything like so deep, the greatest depth found being little more than 100 feet. The sides of the chasms are adorned with shrubs and ferns, and some fine flowering specimens of the great willow-herb. The altitude is about 1350 feet. Following up this limestone hollow we arrive very soon at a point where the stream, having cut through the thick turf to the rock below, has in the lapse of ages worn away this hard bed for a length of nearly 50 feet, and two or three feet wide. The torrent goes down by a succession of ledges into the Long Kin Cave at its lower extremity, where the horizontal limestone above forms a portal about four yards high and barely one in width. To penetrate this chasm requires caution, as the descent in some places is very rough and rapid, and should not be attempted except in settled weather, as a sudden rising in the water on the fell above would speedily submerge the cave, and the tourist so caught by the "tide" would find escape well nigh impossible. Soon after getting in, it branches suddenly to the left, and the cave then by a succession of bends and low chambers, may be penetrated for a distance of nearly 250 yards. At one part of its course daylight is seen through a chink above. A little to the north-west of the cave, and close under the allotment wall mentioned, is Marble Pot, so called from the fine polish of the rock out of which it is formed. This is a very deep and astounding chasm, and viewed during a flood is an impressive sight. It descends about 30 yards, carrying the water to the mouth of a hole nearly 50 feet in depth, over which the torrent leaps in one unbroken cascade. Ordinarily the flow of water is only small, but in wet weather the rush and roar is tremendous, and the "pot" has been known to fill up and even boil over. About half-a-mile to the north-east of this cavity is another grand natural rift in the mountain, called Juniper Gulf. Do not approach too near this terrible fissure, as the rocks, especially after rain, are very slippery. The juniper, which grows upon its brink, means, we are told in the language of flowers, succour or help, and you would certainly need it in case of any untoward accident. The water descends the contracted chasm a vertical depth of about 80 feet, and must then fall more or less rapidly to the south, perhaps joining the underground stream of Long Kin. By following the wall up here on the right you will come to another larger stream which flows east to a small cave in the rock some six or seven yards below the surface of the moor, and half-a-mile due north of this cave is another smaller opening in the limestone. |