with green sea-weed, which, as the tide retires, gives it the appearance of level land deserted by the sea and turned into meadow. But these lands are meadows only in surface, for they have no pastoral accompaniments.

The northern division of New Forest contains all those parts which lie north of Ringwood and Dibden. As this district is at a distance from the sea, and not intersected by any river which deserves more than the name of a brook, it is adorned by no water-views, except near Dibden, where the forest is bounded by the extremity of the Bay of Southampton. The want of water, however, is recompensed by grand woody scenes, in which this part of the forest equals, if not exceeds, any other part. In noble distances, also, it excels; for here the ground swells higher than in the more maritime parts, and the distances which these heights command consist often of vast extensive forest scenes.

Besides the heaths, lawns, and woods, of which the forest is composed, there is another kind of surface found in many parts, which comes under none of these denominations, and that is the bog. Many parts of the forest abound in springs; and as these lands have ever been in a state of nature, and of course undrained, the moisture drains itself into the low grounds, where, as usual in other rude countries, it becomes soft and spongy, and generates bogs. These in some places are very extensive. In the road between Brokenhurst and Ringwood, at a place called Longslade-bottom, one of these bogs extends three miles without interruption, and is the common drain of all those parts of the forest. In landscape, indeed, the bog is of little prejudice; it has in general the appearance of common verdure. But the traveller must be on his guard; these tracts of deceitful ground are often dangerous to such as leave the beaten roads and traverse the paths of forest. A horse-track is not always a mark of security; it is perhaps only beaten by the little forest-horse, which will venture into a bog in quest of better herbage; and his lightness secures him in a place where a larger horse, under the weight of a rider, would flounder. If the traveller, therefore, meet with a horse-path pointing into a swamp, even though he should observe it to emerge on the other side, he had better relinquish it. The only track he can prudently follow is that of wheels."

Before leaving the New Forest, let us mention, that near Brambridge, in the neighbourhood, on the estate of the Hon. Mr. Craven, there is a very fine avenue of lime-trees, of which our artist has given an illustration.

CHAPTER IX.

DARTMOOR FOREST.

ARTMOOR, situated in the western limits of the county of Devon, is twenty-two miles in extent from north to south, and fourteen from east to west. It is considered to derive its name from the river Dart, which rises on the moor, in the midst of a bog at Cranmere Pool. This immense tract of land, which has been computed to contain nearly one hundred thousand acres, is thus described by Dr. Berger: "From Harford Church (near the southern limit of Dartmoor,) the country assumes quite a bare and alpine appearance, presenting a vast plain, extending beyond the visible horizon. The face of the country is formed by swellings and undulations gradually overtopping each other, without ever forming distinct mountains. There is no vegetation, and few human dwellings; we tread upon a boggy soil of very little depth, and scarcely affording sufficient food to support some dwarf colts, as wild as the country they inhabit." Part of the waste is appropriated by the surrounding parishes, the freeholders of which possess the right of common, or, as it is termed, of venville, on these appropriated parts. The rest of Dartmoor, to which the name of DARTMOOR FOREST, frequently given to the whole waste, strictly applies, and which belongs to the Duchy of Cornwall, has been found by survey to contain upwards of fifty-three thousand acres.

"1

The highest part of Dartmoor Forest, in which some of the most important rivers of the county have their rise, consists of a succession of morasses formed by the decay of the successive crops of aquatic plants with which this part teams; these morasses are in some parts fifty feet deep, in others not more than five. In several places there have been land-slips, owing to the over-accumulation of marshy soil; these slips would be more frequent but for the granite rocks, or "tors," which continually rise to the surface.

1 Geol. Trans. vol. i.

2 These "tors" appear to owe their present figure to the resistance which their crystallisation has enabled them to offer to the influence of the atmosphere. Generally

The elevation of Dartmoor Forest causes it to have a much lower average temperature than other parts of the county. The average difference of the temperature at Ilfracombe, on the north coast of the county, and Oakhampton, just on the northern border of Dartmoor, is 10° 5' of Fahrenheit.

Peat is dug in this forest; it supplies fuel throughout the whole of the year; whilst the sod also is useful in another way, since a good deal of it is employed in the building of huts, generally composed of loose stones, peat, and mud, in which the few and scattered peasantry of the forest are content to make their dwellings.

The peasantry of Dartmoor were, at no distant period, looked upon as being little better than savages; and even now they are a very rude and primitive people. As an instance, like a fact in law, carries more weight with it than a discussion, we give the following true tale as an illustration.

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Some years ago, a gentleman, mounted on a horse (at the breakingup of a very hard and long frost, when the roads were only just beginning to be passable), set out in order to cross over Dartmoor. Though the thaw had commenced, yet it had not melted the snowheaps so much as our traveller expected; he got on but slowly, and towards the close of day it began to freeze again. The shades of night were drawing all around him, and the mighty "tors,” which seemed to grow larger and taller as he paced forward, gradually became enveloped vapour and mist, and the traveller did not know how to get out of his predicament. To reach Tavistock that night he knew would be impossible, as a fresh snow-storm was fast falling in every direction, and added another impediment to the difficulties of his way. To stay out all night on the intensely cold moor, without shelter, would be certain. death. It was therefore with no small satisfaction that he discerned at a distance a certain dark object, but partially covered with the snow, which he soon discovered to be a cottage. The spirits both of "the horse and his rider" revived, and it was not long ere they reached the habitation.

The traveller quickly dismounted; and the rap that he gave with the butt-end of his heavy riding-whip upon the door was answered by an old woman; he entered, and beheld a sturdy peasant, the woman's son, who sat smoking his pipe beside a blazing peat-fire. The stran

the granite of Dartmoor is remarkable for the size of the felspar crystals which it contains. It is quarried and exported to a considerable extent, especially to London. It is metalliferous, containing veins of tin, and even the rock itself being sometimes impregnated with this metal.