Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume II.djvu/129

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and Langdale-Pi1.es- the shores are left entirely in the hands of Nature, and as beauty and p-randeur arethe characteristic of Winandermere, so untamed wildness is that ot Coniston water.

On quitting this sheet of liquid crystal, alongwhi >se margin we rode lor six miles, we bade adieu to the lakes, and entered upon a scene of singular contrast to their mountainous features; a wide extent of level sand, the bed of the river Leven ; who, when the tide is full, rolls his waters over the expanse, and converts the lately dry surface into one vast lake. This flat tract conducted us to the town of Ulverstone, situated in an open but not unpleasant country; having noble wooded hills to the south, grand mountains to the north, and the bay of More- cambe before it, over whose sands the tale rises to the height of fifteen feet at the spring floods. Tins is a town of great antiquity, the capital and head port of the di strict called F unless; its trade in- creasing, and its population daily extending. Wood, (of which vast quantities are cut in the neigh'n hood) iron-ore from the great adjoining mm*. Whitrigs, (so rich that one hundred pounds ol ore will give seventy-five of fine metal, and so produc- tive that twenty thousand tons of ii are a; ex-ported) blue slate, and corn, form its list o' exports. The iron is chieil} sent to Sheilield,

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