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Journey to Caldbeck
Fells
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A Journey to CAUDEBEC FELLS, with a Map and
Description of the same.
ONE curiosity is apt to excite another; after visiting
Cross-fells, † my inclinations led me to
examine those of Caudebeck, that lateral detachment
of the British Alps, which overspreads great part of
Cumberland; distinguished by insuperable precipices,
and tow'ring peaks, and exhibiting landskapes of a quite
different and more romantic air than any part of the general
ridge, and of nearer affinity to the Switzerland
Alps. My intention in this journey was to visit the
Wadd-mines, the peculiar product of these mountains,
and no where else discovered on the globe; but as they are
kept close shut up, and the weather was extremely
unfavourable, I deferred that examination to a more proper
time, and contented myself with the varieties in the
neighbourhood of Mose-dale; here I found villages in
the narrow bottoms, that feel no more benefit from the solar
rays for two months about the winter solstice, than the old
Cimmerians, or the Laplanders who inhabit
about the North Cape of Norway.
Swinsted on Cauda is a strong instance that
the property of the Artic circle is not confined to those
unhappy regions which lie within 23 degrees of the pole,
especially with regard to the solar light.
These mountains differ not only in figure, but are very
dissimilar in property to the main body, being dry, smooth,
and more agreeably verdant, where precipices occur not. The
rocks upon which they are built, being of a fissile
absorbent nature, serving to imbibe the descending rains,
which are thrown off from the more compact strata of the
general ridge, and take broken and uneven courses, through
the loose and spongy texture of their outward covering,
forming sometimes morasses, but more frequently rotten bogs,
and sinuous mires of difficult passage
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