the entrochi and trochite of various kinds, some of which are compressed and flatted, others raised and truncated, some hollow in the middle, and filled with grey stony matter. Of the same are those found near Strickland-head on the banks of the rivulet which runs down from Shap, and by the inhabitants called Fairy-stones. Here also are found the mycetites. Coralloid bodies are found in great quantities, and differently variegated, near the river Lowther: they will bear a polish, and are about the hardness of Genoese marble. Some of the same kind are found at Helsfell nigh Kendal, and appear beautifully variegated, of a brown sandy colour, but so interspersed with different colours, that they are little inferior to Syena marble."— Specimens of all these are to be found in the collection left by Dr. Woodward to the University of Cambridge.

The RIVERS in this county are but small; for as the mountain tops are for the most part the boundary, the rivers all spring within the county; and only three, that can properly be called rivers, carry their name to the sea; to wit, Eden, which springs in Mallerstang, and having received in its course (besides many lesser streams) the conjoined rivers of Lowther and Eamont, enters Cumberland, and running the whole length of that county, empties itself into the sea at Rowcliff. The second river is Lune or Lon, which hath its source in Ravenstondale, and runs down the vale which from the name

of the river is called Lonsdale, where it enters the county of Loncaster (as it was anciently called), and a little below the town of Lancaster falls into the sea. The third is Kent, which rises in Kentmere, and washes the vale which from thence receiveth the name of Kendale, and empties itself into the sea below Levens.

In the hollows amongst the mountains are formed divers large LAKES, having small rivulets running through them, which preserve the water clear, the lakes having commonly a pebbly or rocky bottom; as Windermere, Ulleswater, Haws-water, Ridal-water, Elter-water, Gresmere-water, and other lesser lakes which go by the name of Tarns, as Sunbiggin Tarn, Ravenstondale Tarn, Whinfell Tarn, and others. Which lakes and tarns abound with divers species of fish, as trout, eels, bass, perch, tench, roach, pike, char, and divers others.

The southern part of this county is also pretty well furnished with SEA FISH, caught near the Kent and Levens sands, and other places upon the sea coast. Which heretofore were brought weekly to Kendal market, insomuch that upon a market-day there have been sometimes five and thirty different sorts of fish. But since the great improvement of the town and port of Lancaster, the market for fish is considerably drawn that way.

There is no very great plenty of wooD in this county; it seems to have been industriously destroyed, to prevent its affording shelter to the

Scotch invaders. It is very certain, that long after the conquest, this county was over-run with wood; we read of nothing but forests, and chases, and parks, and mastage, and pannage, and vert, and venison, and greenhue, and regarders, and foresters, and verderers, and an hundred other names and titles respecting the keeping or preservation of the woods and game therein. In almost all the mosses, there are large trees of oak, fir, birch, and other wood, covered now four, five, or six feet in depth, with that kind of earth that the people dig up for fuel, many of which have the marks of the stroke of the ax upon them, and are lying near to their root, which is at the bottom of the moss; and the tops and leaves, by the stoppage of the water draining into the vacuities, seem to have contributed towards increasing the growth of the peatmoss, which in some places, it is very observable, acquires a new covering every year. The water, weeds, moss, straws, grass, ling, and other matter, which collect in the winter and stagnate, are dried up in summer, and effect a new crust upon the former mass.

Upon many of the commons are ridges and furrows, which evidently bear the signature of the plough. The tradition amongst the country people is, that this was done in the reign of king John, when the kingdom was under an interdict from the Pope, and the inhabitants thereby prohibited from tilling their improved ground. But besides that an interdict doth not imply any such prohibition,

being only an hinderance of the celebration of divine offices, it seemeth that the true reason of these ploughings which now appear upon the common hath been, that these places happened to be first cleared from wood, and afterwards were deserted for more favourable situations, as the wood became gradually cleared away.

In these mountains, towards the north-east part of the county, is a very remarkable phenomenon, such as we have not found any account of elsewhere in the kingdom, except only about Ingleton and other places bordering upon the mountains of Ingleborrow, Pendle, and Penigent, in the confines of the counties of York and Lancaster. It is called a HELM-WIND. A rolling cloud, sometimes for three or four days together, hovers over the moun tain tops, the sky being clear in other parts. When this cloud appears, the country people say the helm is up; which is an Anglo-Saxon word, signifying properly a covering for the head, from whence comes the diminutive helmet. This helm is not dispersed or blown away by the wind, but continues in its station, although a violent roaring hurricane comes tumbling down the mountain, ready to tear up all before it. Then on a sudden ensues a profound calm. And then again alternately the tempest which seldom extends into the country above a mile or two from the bottom of the mountain.

In the modern part of the Universal History, vol. xv. p. 519, we find an account of exactly the like

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appearance on some of the hills near the Cape of Good Hope, thus described by those elegant authors: In the dry season, a white cloud hovers over the top of the mountains; from which cloud issue the south-west winds with incredible fury, shattering houses, endangering shipping, and greatly damaging the fruits of the earth. Upon discovery of which cloud, the sailors immediately prepare for a storm*."

This county, together with the counties of Cumberland, Northumberland, Durham, York, and Lancaster, was anciently the country of the BRIGANTES, who were subdued by the Romans; and there are remaining many ancient monuments of the Romans in this county to this day.

The great ROMAN CAUSEWAY went quite through this county, entering upon Stanemore, and going out at Brougham castle. Until the turnpike road was made, which destroyed a considerable part thereof, it was very conspicuous almost the whole length of its course. It was carried in a direct straight line, over hills and dales, through mosses and tarns, as if nothing should be able to interrupt their progress. It was about six yards in breadth, and on the level ground appears to have been made of three courses of large square stones, the lowest

* A most philosophic, masterly, and interesting Essay on this phenomenon, by The Rev. W. Walton, F.R.S., is to be found in Jefferson's History of Carlisle, 433. The paper was read before the Royal Society in 1837.