BOTANY
Compared with South Lancashire or any other division of West Lancashire this is the most interesting botanical district. It is more varied geologically than the other parts, and its numerous woods, scars, and crags, its hills and glens, its tarns, limestone pavements, and 'pot holes' are the homes of many uncommon plants. The highest ground is 2,050 feet.
2. East Division.—Consists of elevated, bleak and barren moorlands, intersected by deep wooded glens or doughs, each with its stream of sparkling water derived from extensive spongy peat-beds, which are fed by frequent rains and cloud fog. The remainder of this division is less interesting, consisting of upland pastures with some low land on the banks of the rivers. The strata are almost entirely composed of the Yoredale series (grits and calcareous shales) and Millstone grit. The highest ground is Wardstone (1,836 feet). There are only small patches of limestone near Chipping and Whitewell.
3. West Division presents a marked contrast to those already dealt with. It consists of a nearly level plain, termed the Fylde (or garden) lying between the estuaries of the Lune and Ribble, and intersected about midway by the Wyre. Its highest ground is not anywhere more than 130 feet, and usually only from 25 to 60 feet.
The shale consists principally of Permian sandstone and Triassic marl, generally overlaid with glacial drift, and in the northern and central portions are the scanty remains of what was formerly an immense peat-moss. This has been extensively reclaimed and the greater part of this division is now highly cultivated. The coast-line exhibits muddy salt marshes and sand-dunes resembling those of South Lancashire (V.C. 59) and Cheshire (V.C. 58). These aboriginal features are rapidly disappearing before the operations of the builder and agriculturist and the extension of foreshore improvements by various watering places. To the north of Blackpool are low cliffs of glacial drift. The more interesting plants are those of the dunes, salt-marshes, and peat-mosses.
V.C. 69. Lake Lancashire (without Westmorland), all the county north of Morecambe Bay.—On the west it is separated from Cumberland by the Duddon, the same river and the Brathay and part of Elter Water are its northern boundary, dividing it from Cumberland and Westmorland, thence the boundary southwards is along the west shore of Windermere, then up the east shore for four miles. It then turns eastwards for a mile and a half, and then southwards, following the river Winster to Lindale, crossing the river twice. The boundary runs south to Morecambe Bay, a mile to the east of Grange, and half a mile to the west of the Winster mouth, having Westmorland all along its eastern border. Walney Isle on the south-west, opposite Barrow, is included in this vice-county. This part of Lancashire is almost an island, the two rivers Duddon and Brathay rising near the three-shire stone.
The highest ground is Coniston Old Man, 2,633 feet. Two of the Seathwaite fells are over 2,500 feet. All the fells about Coniston, from the northern boundary of the vice-county to Broughton and Waterhead, are composed of middle slates; there are no exposures of granite as in Cumberland (Skiddaw, etc.). The south-eastern boundary of these slates is marked by a variable band of limestone (only partially calcareous), dark in colour and intermingled with beds of shale. These rocks belong to the Lower Silurian system. To
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