Bodmin
Bodmin
To the east and north-east is the large granite mass of the Bodmin moors. It is these striking granitic masses, here and further west—at the Land's End, at St Breage, in the district north of Helston, and again north of St Austell—which form the bolder features of the county. A remarkable depression lies between Marazion and St Ives' Bay, utilised by the railway from Hayle to Marazion road. It almost seems as if the whole of Penwith, the portion west of this trough, had at one time been an island, with a channel of sea between it and the mainland. On the other hand, at a remote period there can be no doubt that there extended far out broad low-lying lands which are now covered by the sea, for forest beds have been found in Mounts Bay, in Padstow Bay, at St Columb Major, and elsewhere, showing that there has been a subsidence of the land. This has given rise to the fable of a drowned realm of Lyonesse, but this Lyonesse never existed in or near Cornwall; it was LÉon in Brittany. But if there has been subsidence, there has also been an elevation of the land, as is shown by the raised beaches that can be traced along the coast. In the south are found flint pebbles in these raised beaches, showing that the wash at one period was not as now from west to east, but the reverse. It was from these flint pebbles in the elevated beaches that prehistoric man in Cornwall obtained the material for the fabrication of his tools and weapons. The elevation of the land, which dried up the channel between the Land's End and the mainland, preceded the depression which sunk the now submerged forests.
To the north of the great granite boss that forms the Bodmin moors a ridge of cold moors rises, setting its back against the Atlantic and feeding the rivers that flow south with the rain that pours over it. Very little can be grown on these heights: they produce a little barley, but are mainly covered with rushes, coarse grass, and furze bushes. No considerable heights are reached till we come to Carnmarth and Carn Brea, each only 700 ft. above the sea. Then there is no distinct height till we reach Godolphin and Tregonning hills of 560 ft. and 600 ft. Towards Land's End there are greater heights—700 ft. and a little over, but this is naught compared with Brown Willy, 1368, and Kilmar, 1297, in the east. But it must be understood that grand mountain, or even fine hill scenery is not to be met with in western Cornwall. Its glory is in its magnificent coast-line; and its beauty is to be found in its lovely valleys and coombes.
Rough Tor
Rough Tor
The general features of a country depend on its geological structure. Granite formation, slate rock, sandstone, limestone, chalk—all have their special characters, unmistakable. When we are among the granites in the west of England we expect a tent-like shape of hill with a tor of rock at the summit; the sides strewn with a "clatter" of fallen rock, and clothed in heather and furze. When we come to the slates, and the overlying cold clays, we expect little except in the gorges and valleys cut through the strata by the streams. Of sandstone, or of chalk, forming breezy rolling downs, there is none in Cornwall, nor of limestone with its bold scars, such as are met with in the western hills of Yorkshire. We must take what we can find—and much can be found in Cornwall if we do not expect too much, nor look for what is not there, and under existing geological conditions could not be there.
St Keyne's Well, Liskeard
St Keyne's Well, Liskeard
