The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

YOEKSHIEE. 255
prophetess of the sixteenth century, was born, and extensive limestone quarries.
Ribsfon is a small village below Kniiresborough, where Eibston pippins were
first grown. Harrogate, the famous watering-place, occupies a lofty position above
the Ure. The first spring was discovered in 1596, and there are now known about
twenty-five, both sulphureous and chalybeate.
The Wharfe rises in Langshothdale, and takes its winding course through a
dale renowned for its scenic charms. It flows past the ruins of Bolton Abbey and
the huge hydropathic establishments which have made Illdey a second Malvern,
until it reaches Otieij, a small manufacturing town, which is the capital of Wharfe-
dale. At Wdherht/ the Wharfe emerges upon the plain of York, and flowing past
Tadcnsfer, it joins the Ouse a short distance above Cawood.
The Aire takes its rise at the foot of the scars of Gordale and in the pretty
Malham Tarn (1,246 feet above the sea). It flows near S/a'pfon, the capital of the
Craven district, close by which is the castle of the Cliffords. Cotton-spinning and
quarrying occupy many of the inhabitants. At Skipton the Aire leaves behind it
the rugged limestone region, and enters upon more monotonous moorlands, the
towns amongst which will be described further on.
A portion of Yorkshire lies beyond the Pennine chain, and is drained by the
river Kibble and by the Eawthey, a tributary of the Lune. Sedbergh, the principal
town on the latter, is a secluded place in the midst of steep fells. Its grammar
school, however, enjoys some reputation, and amongst its scholars was Sedgwick,
the geologist, a native of the village of Dent, a few miles to the south-east, famous
for its black marble.
The Ribhle rises in the fells to the north of the Ingleborough, and flows
through a charming country past the small town of Settle, dependent upon agri-
culture and cotton- spinning, into Lancashire.
TYe now enter the south-western moorlands, so abundantly supplied with coal
and iron, and traversed in all directions by running streams, which furnish the
motive power needed by its innumerable factories. The towns are crowded together
in this region, and in some localities have almost blotted out green fields. The oppo-
site diagram wUl enable us to obtain some notion of their distribution. Broadly
speaking, the valleys of the Aire and Calder are the seats of the woollen and
worsted trades, with a great deal of cotton-spinning towards the west ; the Upper
Don is the centre of the iron industry, and its tributary Dearne that of the linen
trade.
The Aire and Calder, which traverse the northern portion of this industrial
region, have vastly changed their character since the Middle Ages. Their water was
famous then for its crystalline purity, and a Yorkshire poet cried out, " "Why should
not the maidens of Castleford be beautiful ? do they not lave themselves in the
mingled waters of the Aire and Calder ? " These rivers, in our own day, are hardly
better than open sewers, for they receive the refuse of innumerable factories.
The Calder, when it first enters this district, flows past the town of Keighley,
engaged in the manufacture of worsted and in cotton-spinning, and known for its
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