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Page 276:-
[dis]covered by the muddy water, after a sheep-washing, going
down the one passage, and the seeds or husks of oats that were
sent down the other.- About a couple of miles from Horton, on the
right hand side of the road to Settle, is a curious stone quarry,
at a place called Culms or Coums. The stones are of a blue kind,
like slate, from one to three inches thick: some are two or three
yards broad, and five or six yards long. They are made use of for
floors in houses, being sometimes laid over cellars, on joists:
they are also used for gate-posts, foot-bridges, and partitions
between the stalls in stables and cow-houses.
At Stainforth, which is about three miles from Horton, and two
from Settle, we were entertained with two cascades,- one in the
Ribble, near the road, about six or eight yards high; and another
a little above the village, perhaps twenty or thirty yards
perpendicular.
About a quarter of a mile before we arrived at Settle, we turned
to the right, along the road towards Kirkby-Lonsdale, about a
mile, under the high and romantic rocks called Giggleswick-scar,
in order to see the well by the way-side, that ebbs and flows. We
were in luck, seeing it reciprocate several times while we were
there, and not staying above an hour. We could not however learn
with any degree of certainty, by what intervals of time, and to
what heights and depths, the reciprocation was carried on. We
were informed, that if the weather was either very droughty or
very wet, the phenomenon ceased. I have seen some philosophical
attempts to solve this extraordinary curiosity on the principle
of the syphon, but in vain; as, on that hypothesis, if the syphon
is filled by the spring, it will flow on uniformly for ever. We
were told by drunken Barnaby, an hundred and fifty years ago,
that it puzzled the wits of his age.-
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