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terminated by a number of black, irregular, chaotic mountains;
which, by their indentations and winding summits, gave us reason
to believe they contained habitable vales between them. Their
sides afford a hardy and wholesome pasture for sheep, and their
bowels contain rich mines of lead, some of which are wrought with
great advantage to the proprietors.
The immense base on which Ingleborough stands, is between twenty
and thirty miles in circumference. The rise is in some places
even and gradual; and in others, as to the north and west, it is
rugged, and almost perpendicular. The top is plain and
horizontal, being almost a mile round, having the ruins of an old
wall about it, from which some ingenious antiquaries endeavour to
prove it has once been a Roman station, and place of great
defence. Of late years it has never been frequented by any,
except shepherds, and the curious-in-prospects, and the
neighbouring country people, who resorted to the horse races,
which were formerly annually held on its top. On the western edge
there are the remains of what the country people call the beacon,
some three or four yards high, ascended by a flight of steps. The
ruins of a little watch-house is also adjoining. No doubt, in
time of wars, insurrections, and tumults, and particularly during
the incursions of the Scots, a fire was made on this beacon, to
give the alarm to the country round about.- The soil on the top
is so dry and barren, that it affords little grass, the rock
being barely covered with earth: a spongy moss is all the
vegetable that thrives in this lofty region. The stones on the
summit, and for a great way down, are of the sandy gritty sort,
with freestone slate amongst them: upon the base the rocks are
all limestone, to an enormous depth. Near the top indeed, on the
east side, is a stratum of limestone, like the Derbyshire marble,
full of entrochi. Several springs have their origin near the
summit, particularly one on the north side, of pure and
well-tasted water, called Fair-weather Sykes, which runs down by
the side of a sheep-fence wall into a chasm called Meir Gill. All
the other springs, as well as this, when they come to the
limestone base, are swallowed
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