CHAPTER XLIII.

AMONG THE GILLS AND CAVES AT RIBBLEHEAD.

Aspects at Ribblehead-Blea Moor an ancient snow-field-Glacial relics-Ling Gill-Inns-Gearstones, old market-Source of the Ribble-Thorns GillKatnot Cave-Ling Gill, its geological character-A former powerful streamLinn or Ling Gill?—The gill a cover for wolves, &c.-Citation of 13th century fine-Ancient bridge-Picturesque aspects of Ling Gill-Its vegetable interest - List of species The Arenaria gothica, a new British plant Other interesting botanical discoveries-Brow Gill Cave-Calf Hole-Ingman Lodge -Batty Wife Hole-Ranscar Caves.

T Ribblehead station (1080 feet) on the Carlisle line we are in a grand wilderness of caverned hills and wide-reaching moors, the platform occupying the centre of a triangle formed by three of the highest mountains in Yorkshire,Whernside, Ingleborough, and Penyghent. Blea Moor also rolls away up on the right, a wild, desolate tract of bare crag and grouse-haunted heath, rising on the watershed of England. It is covered with the debris of an ancient ice-sheet, and there is no doubt whatever that in the Glacial Epoch this was an immense snow-field, and the gathering ground of that enormous frozen mass, which, split by the northern buttresses of Ingleborough, ploughed down Ribblesdale and Chapel le Dale. We have, however, already spoken of these ancient glaciers, and pointed out numerous travelled stones on their tracks, as well as the large mounds of clay and gravel, or drumlins, so called from their shape resembling a drum-line, conforming with the direction of ice movement.

There are some romantic glens and little-frequented caves accessible from Ribblehead, of which the magnificent ravine of Ling Gill is, perhaps, the most notable scenic feature on the north side of the valley. Several other spots of interest, however, never previously written about, we intend now to point out. The Ingleborough and Whernside caves to the south we have already discussed in a previous chapter; let us therefore confine our attention to such objects and curiosities as lie in the opposite direction.

There are two comfortable inns at Ribblehead, about a half-mile apart. The one near the station was built when the line was being made about twenty years ago. Since 1876 it has been tenanted by old John

Kilburn, who for 35 years was master of the little school at Chapel in the Dale. He was six years a shepherd on Ingleborough, and though now nearly 80, is still hale and able, and regularly attends the weekly market at Bentham, ten miles off.

At Gearstones, up to about twenty years ago, there was a market for corn and oatmeal, held from time immemorial every Wednesday. As many as 20 to 30 waggons laden with oatmeal used to come out of Wensleydale, and which went to supply all the farm-houses for a good many miles round. When the market originated is not known, but probably in monastic times when Gearstones, as part of the ancient manor of Newby, to which it still belongs, was a possession of Furness Abbey. The inn here (1050 feet) is a very old establishment, but the building was almost wholly re-constructed twelve years ago. It is a quiet comfortable place, and from the sitting-room window there is a delightful view of the mountains and valley southwards.

The usually accepted source of the Ribble, or Ribble Head, is reached from the road going up to Gearstones inn, through a field on the right and below a barn, near two thorn trees. The water flows into the Gale Beck just below. This beck comes down from Newby Head (400 feet), three miles north, and is really the furthest tributary of the Ribble. The Cam Beck, to the east, which rises within a mile of the source of the Wharfe, on the opposite watershed, joins the Gale Beck a half-mile north-east of Selside, and the two streams united form the Ribble proper.

The Gale Beck flows through Thorns Gill, a small but beautiful wooded ravine excavated out of the Great Scar Limestone, and which may be entered by a footpath descending behind the Gearstones inn to the wooden bridge that spans the gill head. The stream may be traversed on either side, but by crossing the bridge, and following the glen downwards about 200 yards, a steep tongue of rock, about 60 feet above the bed of the stream, will be observed, from the top of which there is a very beautiful view up the romantic flower-strewn glen, with its series of miniature cascades noisily displaying themselves in tawny foam. Here is the entrance to a cavern called Katnot Hole or Cave. It has a rather low opening, but on descending within it attains a convenient height, although the passage is but narrow. In about 40 yards from the mouth a spacious grotto is entered, whence the fissure suddenly bends to the east, and continues at a moderate elevation for a distance of over 400 yards. This passage can only be penetrated in single file, and as the sides and floor are usually very wet and dirty, it is certainly not a desirable place to explore in a new suit. A century ago, according to Hutton, "spar and petrifactions abounded in every part." There is a pot-hole about half-a-mile higher up which receives the

stream flowing through the cavern. A few yards below the mouth of the cave, the water through it runs from a small hole into the beck. Noticeable hereabouts are the large cavities in the sides of the cliffs, scooped out by the churning action of stones and water, and which plainly indicate how much higher than its present bed the stream formerly ran.

Ling Gill is on the Cam Beck, above mentioned, and is unquestionably one of the finest and wildest ravines in Yorkshire. The erosive action of the mountain torrent—anciently a much more formidable stream than it is now-has carved out a deep channel in the Scar Limestone, which, in the upper part of the glen, forms grand, beetling walls nearly 300 feet in height, clothed with the most luxuriant vegetation. Near the Far House barn, at the top of the glen, about 25 feet of coralline (Yoredale) limestone is exposed. Ice scratches, trending S.S.W., are noted on rock along the road on the east side of the Gill, and there is no doubt that on the melting of the great ice-sheet on Cam Fell the quantity of water coming through this gill must have been prodigious. From the size of many recently-rolled boulders in the stream-bed, we may see even yet what a great flood can do. Stretches of heather, or ling, descend to the head of the ravine, and doubtless at one time spread lower down, and from this circumstance, I suppose, the gill was named. There is no particular waterfall or pool of sufficient consequence, I think, to warrant the inference that the name was derived from the Celtic Llyn, as at Linton in Wharfedale, &c. Yet in the Furness Abbey charters it is usually written Lynghyll,-the Scand. word gill (a mountain ravine), prevalent in Craven, being, it is noticeable, spelled by the monks in the Cumbrian fashion, as is common in the Lake District, where many of their possessions were situate.

Ling Gill and the neighbouring ravines probably gave cover to wolves and other now extinct animals long after the time of John of Gaunt, who is credited with having slain the last wild wolf in Yorkshire, near Woodlesford, about A.D. 1380. The old Mowbray Fee, which included a vast expanse of country, and extended eastwards as far as Ribblehead, or in the terms of a contemporary survey, from "Gemesike to Caldkeld super Camb, and from Caldkeld sup. Camb to the top of Penigent," where it joined the territory of the Percys, abounded in wolves and stags, for in a fine of the time of King John, between William de Mowbray and Adam de Staveley, particular reference is made to these animals, with respect to concessions of free chase.

The old pack-horse road from Horton, by High Birkwith (which now it is hardly credible to think was once a busy way-side inn), over Cam End to Hawes and Wensleydale, crosses the head of Ling Gill, and there is an ancient and picturesque gritstone bridge here, which bears