Part 2
Under Brown Willy is a pool called Fowey Well, which is traditionally held to be the source of the Fowey river. This however is not the case. It rises under Buttern Hill (1135 ft.) crowned by cairns, but as the Fowey Well has no outlet visible, it is supposed to decant by a subterranean stream into the river. Leaping down from the moors, the Fowey enters a wooded valley and, turning abruptly west, flows through another well timbered valley. Running beside the railway, and then turning sharply south, it passes the old Stannery town of Lostwithiel, to which the tide reaches, and plunging into a narrow glen with St Winnow on one side and Golant on the other, finally reaches the sea at Fowey harbour.
There are two Looe rivers, one rising in the Bodmin moors receives the overflow of Dozmare Pool, and flowing deep below Liskeard receives the West Looe above the estuary. Duloe, which has a small but interesting circle of upright stones, stands between them and is supposed to be so called as between the two Looes. Before reaching Duloe the river has passed under St Keyne, famous for its Holy Well commemorated by Southey in a well-known ballad.
There is no river of any importance till we reach the Fal. Rising on Goss Moor, not far from St Columb, and passing Grampound and Tregony, now an utterly decayed place, it meets the Tressilian and the Truro rivers, and all three, insignificant hitherto, suddenly acquire importance and spread out into the beautiful estuary of the Fal or Carrick Roads. Here are Penryn creek, Mylor creek, and Porthcuel harbour, commanded by the castle of St Mawes. None of these owe their importance to the sweet waters they bring down; all their value is due to the tide that flows up to Truro.
The entrance to the Roads is found between Zoze Point and Pendennis Point, the latter at one time defended by a strong castle. Almost halfway between the points is the dangerous Black Rock, to which a former Trefusis conveyed his wife and there left her to be overwhelmed by the rising tide. Happily she was rescued by some fishermen. The Helford river is but a creek, noted for its oyster beds, into which a little stream dribbles.
=6. Geology and Soil.=
By Geology we mean the study of the rocks, and we must at the outset explain that the term _rock_ is used by the geologist without any reference to the hardness or compactness of the material to which the name is applied; thus he speaks of loose sand as a rock equally with a hard substance like granite.
Rocks are of two kinds, (1) those laid down mostly under water, (2) those due to the action of fire.
The first kind may be compared to sheets of paper one over the other. These sheets are called _beds_, and such beds are usually formed of sand (often containing pebbles), mud or clay, and limestone, or mixtures of these materials. They are laid down as flat or nearly flat sheets, but may afterwards be tilted as the result of movement of the earth's crust, just as you may tilt sheets of paper, folding them into arches and troughs, by compressing their ends. Again, we may find the tops of the folds so produced wasted away as the result of the wearing action of rivers, glaciers, and sea-waves upon them, as you might cut off the tops of the folds of the paper with a pair of shears. This has happened with the ancient beds forming parts of the earth's crust, and we therefore often find them tilted, with the upper parts removed.
The other kinds of rocks are known as igneous rocks, which have been melted under the action of heat and become solid on cooling. When in the molten state they have been poured out at the surface as the lava of volcanoes, or have been forced into other rocks and cooled in the cracks and other places of weakness. Much material is also thrown out of volcanoes as volcanic ash and dust, and is piled up on the sides of the volcano. Such ashy material may be arranged in beds, so that it partakes to some extent of the qualities of the two great rock groups.
The production of beds is of great importance to geologists, for by means of these beds we can classify the rocks according to age. If we take two sheets of paper, and lay one on the top of the other on a table, the upper one has been laid down after the other. Similarly with two beds, the upper is also the newer, and the newer will remain on the top after earth-movements, save in very exceptional cases which need not be regarded by us here, and for general purposes we may regard any bed or set of beds resting on any other in our own country as being the newer bed or set.
The movements which affect beds may occur at different times. One set of beds may be laid down flat, then thrown into folds by movement, the tops of the beds worn off, and another set of beds laid down upon the worn surface of the older beds, the edges of which will abut against the oldest of the new set of flatly deposited beds, which latter may in turn undergo disturbance and renewal of their upper portions.
NAMES OF SUBDIVISIONS CHARACTERS OF ROCKS SYSTEMS
{ { Metal Age Deposits } { Recent { Neolithic " } Superficial Deposits { Pleistocene { Palaeolithic " } { { Glacial " } { { { Cromer Series } T { { Weybourne Crag } E { Pliocene { Chillesford and Norwich } Sands chiefly R { { Crags } T { { Red and Walton Crags } I { { Coralline Crag } A { R { Miocene Absent from Britain Y { { { Fluviomarine Beds of } { { Hampshire } { { Bagshot Beds } { Eocene { London Clay } Clays and Sands chiefly { { Oldhaven Beds, Woolwich } { { and Reading Groups } { { Thanet Sands }
{ { Chalk } { { Upper Greensand and Gault} Chalk at top { Cretaceous { Lower Greensand } Sandstones, Mud and { { Weald Clay } Clays below { { Hastings Sands } { { { Purbeck Beds } S { { Portland Beds } E { { Kimmeridge Clay } C { { Corallian Beds } O { { Oxford Clay and } Shales, Sandstones and N { { Kellaways Rock } Oolitic Limestones D { Jurassic { Cornbrash } A { { Forest Marble } R { { Great Oolite with } Y { { Stonesfield Slate } { { Inferior Oolite } { { Lias--Upper, Middle, } { { and Lower } { { { Rhaetic } { { Keuper Marls } { { Keuper Sandstone } Red Sandstones and { Triassic { Upper Bunter Sandstone } Marls, Gypsum and Salt { { Banter Pebble Beds } { { Lower Bunter Sandstone }
{ { Magnesian Limestone and } { { Sandstone } Red Sandstones and { Permian { Marl Slate } Magnesian Limestone { { Lower Permian Sandstone } { { { Coal Measures } Sandstones, Shales and { { Millstone Grit } Coals at top { Carboniferous { Mountain Limestone } Sandstones in middle { { Basal Carboniferous } Limestone and Shales { { Rocks } below { { { Upper } Devonian } Red Sandstones, { Devonian { Mid } and Old Red } Shales, Slates and P { { Lower } Sandstone } Limestones R { I { { Ludlow Beds } Sandstones, Shales and M { Silurian { Wenlock Beds } Thin Limestones A { { Llandovery Beds } R { Y { { Caradoc Beds } Shales, Slates, { Ordovician { Llandeilo Beds } Sandstones and { { Arenig Beds } Thin Limestones { { { Tremadoc Slates } { { Lingula Flags } Slates and { Cambrian { Menevian Beds } Sandstones { { Harlech Grits and } { { Llanberis Slates } { { { No definite } Sandstones, { Pre-Cambrian { classification } Slates and { { yet made } Volcanic Rocks
Again, after the formation of the beds many changes may occur in them. They may become hardened, pebble-beds being changed into conglomerates, sands into sandstones, muds and clays into mudstones and shales, soft deposits of lime into limestone, and loose volcanic ashes into exceedingly hard rocks. They may also become cracked, and the cracks are often very regular, running in two directions at right angles one to the other. Such cracks are known as _joints_, and the joints are very important in affecting the physical geography of a district. Then, as the result of great pressure applied sideways, the rocks may be so changed that they can be split into thin slabs, which usually, though not necessarily, split along planes standing at high angles to the horizontal. Rocks affected in this way are known as _slates_.
If we could flatten out all the beds of England, and arrange them one over the other and bore a shaft through them, we should see them on the sides of the shaft, the newest appearing at the top and the oldest at the bottom, as shown in the table. Such a shaft would have a depth of between 10,000 and 20,000 feet. The strata beds are divided into three great groups called Primary or Palaeozoic, Secondary or Mesozoic, and Tertiary or Cainozoic, and the lowest Primary rocks are the oldest rocks of Britain, which form as it were the foundation stones on which the other rocks rest. These may be spoken of as the Pre-Cambrian rocks. The three great groups are divided into minor divisions known as systems. The names of these systems are arranged in order in the table and on the right hand side the general characters of the rocks of each system are stated.
With these preliminary remarks we may now proceed to a brief account of the geology of the county.
In Cornwall there is a succession of nodes of granite rising to the surface, a continuation westward of the mass of Dartmoor. It has surged to the surface in four large masses continued westward by the Scilly Isles. These granitic masses have upheaved the superincumbent beds of stratified rocks, partly melting them. These distinct nodes are: the Bodmin moors, the St Austell elevation, the Carn Menelez, and the Land's End district. Smaller masses of granite occur in the double heights of Godolphin and Tregonning, St Michael's Mount, Carn Brea and Carn Marth, and Castel-an-Dinas.
The Elvans are dykes of quartz-porphyry which issue from the granite into the surrounding slates, and are often mistakenly supposed to be a bastard granite.
The granite in its upheaval has strangely altered and contorted the superposed beds. There are as well intrusive veins of igneous rocks. In the Lizard district is serpentine, a compact, tough rock often of a green colour, lending itself to a high polish, and forming magnificent cliffs with a special gloss and colour, as well as maintaining on the surface a special flora.
The prime feature in Cornish geology is the upheaval of the granite, distorting, folding back, and altering the superincumbent beds.
In the north-east of Cornwall from a line drawn from below Launceston, on the Tamar, to Boscastle the rocks belong to the culm measures of North Devon. All the rest of the peninsula, except the protruding granite and the serpentine of the Lizard, pertains to the Devonian series of sedimentary rocks, in which the first signs of life appear; consisting largely of clay-slate, locally known as Killas, alternating with beds of red or grey grit and sandstone. Although these slaty rocks must be some thousand feet in thickness, they have been so broken up and turned over by the convulsions of the earth that their chronological sequence cannot easily be determined. In these convulsions they have been rent, and through the rents have been driven hot blasts that have deposited crystalline veins, or injections of trap and other volcanic matter, altering the character of the rock through which they have been driven. By the Menheniot Station on the G.W.R. is a hill of serpentine thrown up at one jet, and now largely quarried for the sake of the roads.
The culm measures already alluded to consist of black shales and slates with seams of grit and chert, much undulated through enormous lateral pressure. The granite, the lowest and most ancient formation of all, was itself consolidated under vast pressure from above, and was not in a molten condition when forced to the surface. Had it been so, it would have resolved itself into lava. It was cold when upheaved, tearing apart the superincumbent stratified sedimentary rocks, which disappeared from the summits, and on all sides about these upheavals were twisted, contorted, thrown back, and fissured.
Atmospheric effect and natural gravitation is constantly carrying the soil from the upper land, from the hills into the bottoms, and consequently it is in the latter that we find the richest land, best calculated to repay the toil of the agriculturist. On the high moors there is little depth of so called "meat earth," below which is clay and grit, hard and unprofitable, commonly called the "calm" or the "deads." But adjoining the granite is the wash from it of its dissolved felspar, the china-clay that furnishes the inhabitants of the St Austell district with a remunerative and ever-growing industry, of which more presently.
=7. Natural History.=
Various facts, which can only shortly be mentioned here, go to show that the British Isles have not existed as such, and separated from the Continent, for any great length of geological time. Around our coasts, for instance, and specially in Cornwall, are in several places remains of forests now sunk beneath the sea, and only to be seen at extreme low water. Between England and the Continent the sea is very shallow, and St Paul's Cathedral might be placed anywhere in the North Sea without submerging its summit, but a little west of Ireland we soon come to very deep soundings. Great Britain and Ireland were thus once part of the Continent and are examples of what geologists call recent continental islands. But we also have no less certain proof that at some anterior period they were almost entirely submerged. The fauna and flora thus being destroyed, the land would have to be restocked with animals and plants from the Continent when union again took place, the influx of course coming from the east and south. As, however, it was not long before separation occurred, not all the continental species could establish themselves. We should thus expect to find that the parts in the neighbourhood of the Continent were richer in species and those furthest off poorer, and this proves to be the case both in plants and animals. While Britain has fewer species than France or Belgium, Ireland has still less than Britain.
Small though England may be, she can nevertheless show most striking differences of fauna and flora in different districts. On the moors of the north, for example, the heaths and berries underfoot, and the larger birds of prey and grouse which now and again meet our view offer a marked contrast to--let us say--the furze-clad chalk downs of Sussex, where the wheatear and whinchat and the copper butterflies and "blues" are familiar objects. These differences depend upon a number of conditions, often mutually interdependent--upon variations of soil, rainfall, temperature, and so forth. Cornwall presents unusual peculiarities in many ways, and we may now consider how far these have affected the creatures and plants within her borders.
Firstly, Cornwall is remotely situated--one of the extreme points of Western Europe--and, whether the fact be dependent on food conditions or not, we find that there are several species of bird, common in other parts of England, which do not occur within the county, such as the nightingale, the wood warbler, garden warbler, redstart, and others. It would almost seem as if some of these species had not found their way thither since the re-peopling of the land by its present fauna, but were in gradual process of doing so, for there is no doubt that many birds rare or unknown in the Duchy half a century ago are now not uncommon, and appear to be steadily moving westward. That the starling is doing so is perhaps not remarkable, for this bird has enormously increased in numbers of late years and has spread everywhere, even up into northern Scotland, but it is curious that birds like the stock-dove and all the woodpeckers and other non-gregarious sorts should show this tendency.
Next, Cornwall is from its position constantly exposed to high winds, and to heavy gales in winter, combined with an unusually heavy rainfall and an "insular" climate tending to warmth and equableness. These factors, added to the granitic formation of much of its area, have made it a country of bleak moorland varied with thickly-wooded deep valleys--dampness being the leading characteristic of both. With such physical conditions, then, we should expect to find the Duchy not very varied in its native trees, perhaps, but particularly abundant in ferns, and this is the case, for 39 species are recorded, while lichens are not less rich. It bears in many ways a resemblance to the climate of Portugal, for here the camellia flourishes and displays its beautiful flowers to perfection, and the tea plant does so well that there seems no reason why it should not be grown for profit. It is not a land of warblers, nor can it show the rich and varied wildfowl fauna of the Fenlands, but there is no county in England where, in the marshy glens, woodcocks are more abundant. The moorlands, too, abound in snipe, and at one time blackgame were common, but the larger birds of prey have for the most part vanished, though an occasional buzzard may be seen and the raven is not yet extinct.
Lastly, it is to be noted that Cornwall is the nearest part of England to America. However difficult it may be of explanation, the fact remains that the Duchy is very rich in rare birds; so rich, indeed, that their recorded occurrence cannot by any possibility be merely accidental. Thus, no less than 24 species have occurred in Cornwall which have never been found in Devonshire. But more than this, a very large number of these--18 or more--are purely American species. The question is, whence do they come? Professor James Clark, who has discussed the point at some length in the _Victoria County History_, is, apparently, loth to believe that they can come directly across the Atlantic, and it is by many thought that they are driven back by heavy south-westerly weather when dropping down the English Channel, having come by a circuitous route from Northern Europe. But against this is the undeniable fact that it is in the immediate neighbourhood of the Land's End that the chief rarities and stragglers are obtained, while many species have been shot in the Scilly Islands which have never been recorded from Cornwall itself.
So far as its botany is concerned, Cornwall does not differ very markedly from Devonshire, but it has a large number of rare or peculiar plants. The highlands and north coast are rather poor in species; it is on the banks and estuaries of the streams that the richest flora is seen. A number of foreign plants are found, mostly in the neighbourhood of Falmouth and other ports. The balsam, _Impatiens Roylei_, from India, grows extremely abundantly between Liskeard and Looe, and near Tintagel, and a species of May-weed (_Matricaria discoidea_) has become a troublesome pest near Falmouth. Loe Pool in the Lizard district is noticeable for the number of rare and local plants it possesses. The Scilly Islands own certain plants peculiar to them; thus, _Trifolium repens_, var. _Townsendi_ and _Ornithopus ebracteatus_ are said not to be found elsewhere in England, and _Carex ligerica_ only in Norfolk.
The chief feature of the mammals of the county is that the grey seal, _Halichaerus gryphus_, is quite numerous in the Scilly Islands; that the polecat, though nearly extinct, is still found; and that both badgers and otters are very abundant. It is a curious fact that certain freshwater fish common in other parts of England, such as pike, roach, chub, and bream, are unknown.
The bird which bears the distinctive appellation, the Cornish chough (it is not confined to the county, but is also found in Wales), is now not nearly as common as formerly, but like the raven it still breeds on some parts of the coast.
=8. Around the Coast. From Morwenstow to Land's End.=
This noble coast--so terrible to sailors--begins with the fine Henna Cliff at Morwenstow. Morwenstow Church contains an early font and has fine Norman arches. Here is Tonacombe, an interesting early Tudor house quite unspoiled. At Morwenstow lived the Rev. Robert Hawker, a poet and character. Bude Haven is a growing seaside place, with golf-links and tolerable bathing. Stratton, of which parish it actually forms or did form a part, has a fine well-cared for church, and above the town is Stamford Hill, where was fought a battle in the Civil War, on May 16, 1643. Sir Bevil Grenville and Hopton commanded the Royalist Army, and the Earl of Stamford the Parliamentarians. The latter were defeated with the loss of 300 men killed and 1700 taken prisoners. One of the old guns marks the site, and an inscription in commemoration of the battle is affixed to the Tree Inn. Widemouth Bay has good sands and promises at some future day to become a sea-bathing place superior to Bude. At Dazard the cliffs are fine; at St Gennys is Crackington Cove with a small beach. Beyond this, High Cliff (705 ft.) is reached, the loftiest headland on the coast. The coast is magnificent to Boscastle. Near this is Pentargon, a beautiful bay into which a little stream leaps in a waterfall. Boscastle is a narrow creek into which only in calm weather can small vessels enter. It is sheltered by a headland in which is a blow-hole. In a lovely valley is the towerless church of Minster. In caves about Willapark seals breed. From hence to Tintagel the cliffs are of slate and are quarried, the slate being let down into boats in the water, when weather permits. Before reaching Tintagel we come to St Neighton's (Nectan's) Kieve, a small waterfall in a glen, where maidenhair fern once abounded.