which may, perhaps, be described as a little town. It must have
thrived with the lead-mines in Arkengarthdale and along the Swale, for
it has gone back since the period of its former prosperity, and is glad
of the fact that its situation, and the cheerful green which the houses
look upon, have made it something of a holiday resort.

When Reeth is left behind, there is no more of the fine 'new' road
which makes travelling so easy for the eleven miles from Richmond. The
surface is, however, by no means rough along the nine miles to Muker,
although the scenery becomes far wilder and more mountainous with every
mile. The dale narrows most perceptibly; the woods become widely
separated, and almost entirely disappear on the southern side; and the
gaunt moors, creeping down the sides of the valley seem to threaten the
narrow belt of cultivation, that becomes increasingly restricted to the
river margins. Precipitous limestone scars fringe the browny-green
heights in many places, and almost girdle the summit of Calver Hill,
the great bare height that rises a thousand feet above Reeth. The farms
and hamlets of these upper parts of Swaledale are of the same greys,
greens, and browns as the moors and scars that surround them. The stone
walls, that are often high and forbidding, seem to suggest the
fortifications required for man's fight with Nature, in which there is
no encouragement for the weak. In the splendid weather that so often
welcomes the mere summer rambler in the upper dales the austerity of
the widely scattered farms and villages may seem a little
unaccountable; but a visit in January would quite remove this
impression, though even in these lofty parts of England the worst
winter snowstorm has, in quite recent years, been of trifling
inconvenience. Bad winters will, no doubt, be experienced again on the
fells; but leaving out of the account the snow that used to bury farms,
flocks, roads, and even the smaller gills, in a vast smother of
whiteness, there are still the winds that go shrieking over the
desolate heights, there is still the high rainfall, and there are still
destructive thunderstorms that bring with them hail of a size that we
seldom encounter in the lower levels.

The great rapidity with which the Swale, or such streams as the Arkle,
can produce a devastating flood can scarcely be comprehended by those
who have not seen the results of even moderate rainstorms on the fells.
When, however, some really wet da