PageSourceSearch

https://wilderness-wales.co.uk/articles/the-wilderness-concept.html

html wilderness-wales.co.uk collected 2026-10-02 14:16:54 UTC 26,381 bytes, 502 lines download raw bytes

1<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
2<html>
3<head>
4<title>The Wilderness Concept</title>
5<meta NAME="Keywords" Content="Wilderness Wales">
6<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
7<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="../xsp_styles.css">
8<META name="verify-v1" content="0IL94q+WUmD9Ah1Dqp238h2z30beT30pEiSneXn2iCs=" />
9<style type="text/css">
10h1 {
11font-family: Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
12font-size: 20pt;
13font-weight: bold;
14text-align: center;
15color: #4682B4;
16}
17h2 {
18font-family: Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
19font-size: 16pt;
20font-weight: normal;
21text-align: center;
22color: #4682B4;
23}
24h3 {
25font-family: Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
26font-size: 12pt;
27font-weight: normal;
28text-transform: uppercase;
29text-align: center;
30color: #4682B4;
31}
32h4 {
33font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
34font-size: 10pt;
35font-weight: bold;
36text-align: center;
37color: #4682B4;
38}
39h5 {
40font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
41font-size: 10pt;
42font-weight: bold;
43font-style: italic;
44text-align: center;
45color: #4682B4;
46}
47p {
48font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
49font-size: 10pt;
50}
51table {
52font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
53font-size: 10pt;
54}
55a:link {
56color: #4682B4;
57}
58a:visited {
59color: #607080;
60}
61</style>
62<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Wilderness Wales RSS Feed" href="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/WildernessWales"/><link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="LEFT_MENU.css">
63<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="FOOTER_MENU.css">
64<script type="text/javascript" src="../milonic_src.js"></script>
vendor: 2 bytes, line 64
64
65<script type="text/javascript" src="../mmenudom.js"></script>
65
66
67
68</head>
69<body>
70<table class="XSP_OUTLINE" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
71<tr>
72<td colspan="2" class="XSP_HEADER_PANEL"><img border=0 src="../images/wilderness-wales.jpg" alt="Wilderness Wales"></td>
73</tr>
74<tr>
75<td colspan="2" class="XSP_INFO_BAR"><p></p><DIV class="BREADCRUMB" align="Left">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<A class="BREADCRUMB" href=".././">Home</A>&nbsp;>&nbsp;<A class="BREADCRUMB" href="./">Articles</A>&nbsp;>&nbsp;<A class="BREADCRUMB" href="the-wilderness-concept.html">The Wilderness Concept</A></DIV>
76</td>
77</tr>
78<tr>
79<td class="XSP_LEFT_PANEL_SPC" id="XSP_LEFT_PANEL_SPC">&nbsp;</td>
80<td class="XSP_CENTER_PANEL" rowspan="2"><table class="XSP_CENTER_PANEL" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0"><tr>
81<td class="XSP_MAIN_PANEL_HEADER"><div align="center">
82    
82<script type="text/javascript"><!--
83google_ad_client = "pub-9660688514518834";
84google_ad_width = 728;
85google_ad_height = 15;
86google_ad_format = "728x15_0ads_al";
87google_ad_channel ="4442478606";
88google_color_border = "708090";
89google_color_bg = "708090";
90google_color_link = "FFFFFF";
91google_color_url = "B0C4DE";
92google_color_text = "FFFFFF";
93google_ui_features = "rc:0";
94//--></script>
vendor: 2 bytes, line 94
94
95<script type="text/javascript"
96src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
97</script>
97
98</div>
99</td>
100</tr>
101<tr><td class="XSP_MAIN_PANEL"><h1>The Wilderness Concept</h1>
102
103<p>For my first proper post, I suppose I should start with wilderness, a subject close to my heart. Just what is
104wilderness? Or more to the point, what do I class as wilderness?</p>
105
106<p>There are many purists who consider wilderness to be nature in its pristine state, never before touched by the
107hand of man. But if you accept this definition, there is no wilderness in the UK, let alone Wales, so how can I
108justify calling my website Wilderness Wales?</p>
109
110<p>Unlike the purists, I see the world in shades of grey rather than black and white, so I see four different
111degrees of wilderness.</p>
112
113<p>1. Pure Wilderness. One dictionary definition of this is &ldquo;an unsettled, uncultivated region left in its natural
114condition.&rdquo; This is the wilderness of the purist. Once touched, it is tainted forever and can never again claim
115this hallowed title.</p>
116
117<p>2. Second-hand Wilderness. When an area which was once cultivated or settled by man is abandoned, nature once
118more exerts her power over it, and the area returns to the wild. This is what I call second-hand wilderness.
119Certainly it&rsquo;s been tainted by the hand of man. Certainly it&rsquo;s no longer in its pristine state, but to all intents
120and purposes, it has effectively returned to the wild.</p>
121
122<p>It&rsquo;s not the same wilderness that it once was, but a different one, a new kind of wilderness. For me, the key
123factor is that the area is no longer cultivated or settled. It is no longer managed by man. Just because man
124interfered with it in the past doesn&rsquo;t mean that it can&rsquo;t become wild again.</p>
125
126<p>3. Relative Wilderness. On the whole, Britain isn&rsquo;t a very wild country. Certainly we have nothing to compare
127with the vast wilderness areas that exist in other parts of the world. But we still have relative wilderness, areas
128that are relatively wild compared to the gentle farmland and urban areas that surround them.</p>
129
130<p>Choose any area. Whichever bits are the least cultivated and least settled, that&rsquo;s the relative wilderness!
131Relatively speaking therefore, the UK has plenty of wilderness. These are the places that cause Londoners to
132remark, &ldquo;There&rsquo;s nothing here!&rdquo;. Such people tend to be at risk of dying in these places, since there&rsquo;s no corner
133shop or pub available every 100 yards! [;-)]</p>
134
135<p>4. Pseudo Wilderness. I&rsquo;m rather fond of this one. It&rsquo;s not real wilderness, but it feels like. Some dictionary
136definitions are &ldquo;not actually but having the appearance of; pretended; apparently similar; counterfeit&rdquo;. So a
137pseudo wilderness is a &ldquo;pretend wilderness&rdquo;. It looks or feels like, but it isn&rsquo;t.</p>
138
139<p>There&rsquo;s a lot of pseudo wilderness in the UK, and you often don&rsquo;t have to go far to find it. The important thing
140is that it should feel wild, so there mustn&rsquo;t be anything man-made in view, nor should there be any sounds of
141civilisation, like cars or people. If it feels convincing enough, then it&rsquo;s a &ldquo;psychological wilderness&rdquo;, so it can
142be real in the mind even if it isn&rsquo;t in reality. All you need is a good imagination and you could be in the middle
143of nowhere!</p>
144
145<h3>The Man-Made Argument</h3>
146
147<p>There are those who argue that there is no natural landscape in the UK, that it&rsquo;s all &ldquo;man-made&rdquo;, but this is
148nonsense IMO. Just because we cut most of the trees down long ago doesn&rsquo;t mean that we &ldquo;made&rdquo; the landscape! It was
149already here, we just modified it a bit.</p>
150
151<p>The underlying geology gives rise to the shape of the land, and while we&rsquo;ve drained most of the marshes and
152altered the course of a few rivers, most of them are natural in origin. Even after felling the trees, man was not
153responsible for the plants that grew in their place. They were created by nature, not man.</p>
154
155<p>So while it&rsquo;s true that we&rsquo;ve modified the surface features, i.e. the &ldquo;skin&rdquo; of the landscape, the underlying
156shape of the land, and the rivers and the plants that grow on it, are the product of nature. You could call the
157process &ldquo;landscape gardening&rdquo;, but &ldquo;man-made&rdquo; it is not!</p>
158
159<h3>Grazing Animals</h3>
160
161<p>Another oft-used argument is that since most upland areas are covered with grazing animals like sheep, the land
162is technically &ldquo;farmland&rdquo;. While that may be true in a sense, that doesn&rsquo;t make the land itself any less wild IMO.
163After all, there are grazing animals in many wild parts of the world. Just because they chew on the vegetation
164doesn&rsquo;t stop it being wild. And even if the herds are managed by man, why should that make a difference? Is Lapland
165any less wild just because reindeer chew on the tundra?</p>
166
167<p>A common argument is that sheep aren&rsquo;t indigenous to the UK, therefore their grazing is unnatural. But there&rsquo;s
168nothing unnatural about sheep, they&rsquo;re just products of nature doing what animals do. Just because we brought them
169here doesn&rsquo;t mean that they&rsquo;re doing anything unnatural. It certainly doesn&rsquo;t make the land &ldquo;man-made&rdquo;. It just
170makes it sheep-grazed, that&rsquo;s all.</p>
171
172<h3>The Forest Myth</h3>
173
174<p>A popular myth is that Britain was once completely covered in forest. The assumption is that man chopped it all
175down, and therefore the whole of Britain is no longer wild. But the highest peaks and ridges were never covered in
176trees. This is because the soil up there is too thin to support the large roots that trees require, and some of the
177land is bare rock so that could never have been tree covered.</p>
178
179<p>Also ridges, as well as some exposed coastlines, are often battered by high winds, so this is not an hospitable
180environment for trees to establish themselves.</p>
181
182<p>In fact, many ancient tracks follow ridges for this very reason. The high ground was the only place which wasn&rsquo;t
183covered by the ancient wildwood, so it was the easiest way to get around inland. This may also help to explain why
184there are so many ancient monuments like cairns and stone circles located on high ground.</p>
185
186<p>So when we look at the summits of the highest peaks in the UK, we&rsquo;re probably seeing them pretty much as they&rsquo;ve
187always been. Arguably, it truly is wilderness up there.</p>
188
189<h3>The Impact of Walkers</h3>
190
191<p>Another argument is that even if the hills were once wild, they no longer are because of all the erosion that
192hill walkers cause. But again, I&rsquo;m not convinced. The key definition of wilderness IMO is &ldquo;an unsettled,
193uncultivated region&rdquo;, and walkers are certainly not settling or cultivating anything up there.</p>
194
195<p>I admit that the eroded paths are unsightly, and they certainly do damage the natural state of the hills, but
196although they&rsquo;re &ldquo;man-made&rdquo; in one sense, they&rsquo;re not &ldquo;made&rdquo; in the sense of being designed and created in a
197purposeful way, they&rsquo;re just an unintended side effect of walking. Grazing animals have the same effect. There are
198sheep trails all over the hills. How are human trails any different?</p>
199
200<p>To my mind it&rsquo;s design that makes the difference, not erosion, so I class things like roads, walls, fences,
201buildings etc as man-made, but not eroded paths, which I class as natural. Erosion is a natural process, even if it
202is unsightly.</p>
203
204<p>However, there is an ever increasing tendency to pave over many of these natural paths, and that most definitely
205is by design, so they aren&rsquo;t natural and they ruin the illusion of wilderness. Of course, these are unavoidable in
206some places and I accept that, but there&rsquo;s a disturbing trend toward building them where they aren&rsquo;t really
207needed.</p>
208
209<h3>So Where is the Wilderness in Wales?</h3>
210
211<p>Well primarily on the hills of course, specifically the open moorland. There&rsquo;s also a lot around the coast.
212Although it&rsquo;s a very thin strip, there&rsquo;s a &ldquo;no-man&rsquo;s land&rdquo; between the land and sea - the tidal zone - which is
213sometimes land and sometimes water. This is definitely wilderness. There&rsquo;s also a thin fringe of land that is
214generally left uncultivated too, which is wider in some areas than others. Sand dunes, for example, can cover a
215large area in some places, as can salt-marsh.</p>
216
217<p>Finally, there are a number of steep narrow valleys and gorges in which remain the last few vestiges of natural
218woodland. Due to difficulty of access, these woodland areas may not be much different to the original wildwood,
219although most pockets of woodland will have been managed if it was accessible enough.</p>
220
221<h3>Wilderness Photography</h3>
222
223<p>Finally, the wilderness concept as it applies to my photography. Many people will be aware that I&rsquo;m no fan of
224including people or buildings in my landscape photographs, nor do I like to include paths or fences or walls. In
225fact, I pretty much like to exclude everything man-made from my images. I only like to photograph what&rsquo;s natural.
226This is my philosophy of &ldquo;wilderness photography&rdquo;.</p>
227
228<p>Like the pseudo wilderness mentioned earlier, it&rsquo;s often only an illusion, but it&rsquo;s the illusion I like to
229create whenever possible. I just don&rsquo;t like taking photographs of man-made stuff, or man himself. Not so long ago I
230took a photograph of a sunset from a crowded beach. It looks as though it was taken in the middle of nowhere, yet
231there were people walking past and kids playing just a few yards away from me.</p>
232
233<p>Of course, it&rsquo;s not always possible to exclude all traces of man&rsquo;s handiwork from my photographs, in fact, it&rsquo;s
234often extremely difficult to avoid it. So rather than be an obsessive purist and not take any photos at all in
235these situations, I simply do the best I can under the circumstances. I don&rsquo;t take my wilderness philosophy too
236literally, and I do appreciate that many people don&rsquo;t dislike man-made elements as much I as do, so I cater for
237that. I&rsquo;d just prefer not to when I have the choice! [:-)]</p>
238
239<h3>Conclusion</h3>
240
241<p>So there you have it. A multitude of wildernesses! Take your pick!</p>
242
243<p>If you have any views on this topic, feel free to comment below.</p>
244<hr>
245
246<p>
246Originall posted&nbsp;on my weblog on&nbsp;May 21, 2007</p>
247<hr>
248
249<h3>Comments</h3>
250
251<p>&nbsp; 1. Bill Grey | 21 May, 2007 at 8:25 pm</p>
252
253<p>Hi Paul,</p>
254
255<p>I think I understand what you think of wilderness. I believe that nowadays we have to accept that which is
256nearest to our concept of wilderness. It might now be evident that man has intruded or influenced the landscape but
257I think we could accept the intrusions of post ice Age man as being OK. By that I mean stone circles , standing
258stones and ancient cairns are more or less part of the landscape we have to accept. Anything later does detract
259from the feeling of unspoiled countryside.</p>
260<hr>
261
262<p>&nbsp; 2. {Stef (BG)} | 21 May, 2007 at 11:10 pm</p>
263
264<p>I&rsquo;m looking forward to seeing how your new blog develops, Paul. It&rsquo;s a good chance to plough your own furrow,
265and reap what you sow.<br>
266If the term &ldquo;wilderness&rdquo; doesn&rsquo;t quite cut it for you, how about &ldquo;wildest&rdquo;? It&rsquo;s not such an absolute term, people
267can interpret it according to their wit.<br>
268Good Luck from Stef</p>
269<hr>
270
271<p>&nbsp; 3. {Paul Saunders} | 22 May, 2007 at 5:58 am</p>
272
273<p>Hi Bill,</p>
274
275<p>I agree that ancient monuments don&rsquo;t distract from the sense of wilderness, but as you say, later stuff
276does.</p>
277
278<p>As for having to accept what we&rsquo;ve got, well, it may not be pure wilderness any more, but it&rsquo;s the next best
279thing. I certainly enjoy it!</p>
280<hr>
281
282<p>&nbsp; 4. {Paul Saunders} | 22 May, 2007 at 6:03 am</p>
283
284<p>Hi Stef, thanks for popping by.</p>
285
286<p>Thanks for the &ldquo;wildest&rdquo; suggestion, but it&rsquo;s too late to change now. My website&rsquo;s been called Wilderness Wales
287for eight years, so the name is pretty much carved in stone! At one time I wanted to call it Wild Wales, but that
288domain name had already gone.</p>
289
290<p>Besides, I like the word &ldquo;wilderness&rdquo;, whether it&rsquo;s pure or not. It has a nice ring to it.</p>
291<hr>
292
293<p>&nbsp; 5. stig_nest | 28 May, 2007 at 8:08 pm</p>
294
295<p>hi paul,<br>
296whilst out in the berwyn region near cwm hirnant all i could think was wilderness.<br>
297or was that bewilderness…</p>
298<hr>
299
300<p>&nbsp; 6. {Paul Saunders} | 29 May, 2007 at 9:12 am</p>
301
302<p>Bewildered eh? Take a map next time! ;-)</p>
303<hr>
304
305<p>&nbsp; 7. stig_nest | 30 May, 2007 at 7:13 pm</p>
306
307<p>hehe, a map is indeed a useful tool. but when its mile after mile of undulating heather and bog you dont need a
308map. you need hooves!</p>
309
310</td></tr><tr><td class="XSP_MAIN_PANEL_FOOTER"><div align="center">
311    
311<script type="text/javascript"><!--
312google_ad_client = "pub-9660688514518834";
313google_ad_width = 728;
314google_ad_height = 15;
315google_ad_format = "728x15_0ads_al";
316google_ad_channel ="3081877958";
317google_color_border = "708090";
318google_color_bg = "708090";
319google_color_link = "FFFFFF";
320google_color_url = "B0C4DE";
321google_color_text = "FFFFFF";
322google_ui_features = "rc:0";
323//--></script>
vendor: 2 bytes, line 323
323
324<script type="text/javascript"
325src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
326</script>
326
327</div>
328</td></tr></table></td>
329</tr>
330<tr><td class="XSP_LEFT_PANEL_2" id="XSP_LEFT_PANEL" style="FONT-SIZE:1px;" height=1><div class="XSP_LEFT_PANEL"><table style=
331"MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: middle; TEXT-ALIGN: center; cellspacing: '0'"
332       cellspacing="0"
333       cellpadding="0"
334       border="0">
335    <tbody>
336        <tr>
337            <td style="HEIGHT: 29px">
338                <p>&nbsp;</p>
339            </td>
340        </tr>
341
342        <tr>
343            <td><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" ><tbody><tr><td>
343<script type="text/javascript" src="script/LEFT_MENUarticles0.js"></script>
343  
343<script type="text/javascript" src="preloadmenuimages.js"></script>
343  </td></tr></tbody></table>
344<noscript>
345<table><tbody><tr><td> <TABLE class="mainLEFT_MENU" cellpadding="0px" cellspacing="0px"> 
346 <TBODY> 
347<TR><TD class="maintdTlLEFT_MENU" style="padding-top: 0px ">
348<a class="mainlinksLEFT_MENU" href=".././" target="">Up One Level</a> 
349 </TD></TR>
350<TR><TD class="maintdTlLEFT_MENU" style="padding-top: 0px ">
351<a class="mainlinksLEFT_MENU" href="./" target="">Articles</a> 
352 </TD></TR>
353<TR><TD class="maintdTlLEFT_MENU" style="padding-top: 0px ">
354<a class="mainlinksLEFT_MENU" href="the-wilderness-concept.html" target="">The Wilderness Concept</a> 
355 </TD></TR>
356<TR><TD class="maintdTlLEFT_MENU" style="padding-top: 0px ">
357<a class="mainlinksLEFT_MENU" href="why-do-you-walk.html" target="">Why Do You Walk?</a> 
358 </TD></TR>
359<TR><TD class="maintdTlLEFT_MENU" style="padding-top: 0px ">
360<a class="mainlinksLEFT_MENU" href="how-to-plan-the-perfect-hill-walk.html" target="">How to Plan the Perfect Hill Walk</a> 
361 </TD></TR>
362<TR><TD class="maintdTlLEFT_MENU" style="padding-top: 0px ">
363<a class="mainlinksLEFT_MENU" href="trig-point-bagging.html" target="">Trig Point Bagging</a> 
364 </TD></TR>
365<TR><TD class="maintdTlLEFT_MENU" style="padding-top: 0px ">
366<a class="mainlinksLEFT_MENU" href="good-old-days-with-bad-old-gear.html" target="">Good Old Days with Bad Old Gear</a> 
367 </TD></TR>
368<TR><TD class="maintdTlLEFT_MENU" style="padding-top: 0px ">
369<a class="mainlinksLEFT_MENU" href="aircraft-wreckage-in-snowdonia.html" target="">Aircraft Wreckage in Snowdonia</a> 
370 </TD></TR>
371<TR><TD class="maintdTlLEFT_MENU" style="padding-top: 0px ">
372<a class="mainlinksLEFT_MENU" href="fan-brycheiniog-waypoints.html" target="">Fan Brycheiniog Waypoints</a> 
373 </TD></TR>
374<TR><TD class="maintdTlLEFT_MENU" style="padding-top: 0px ">
375<a class="mainlinksLEFT_MENU" href="a-photo-or-a-snap.html" target="">A Photo or a Snap?</a> 
376 </TD></TR>
377<TR><TD class="maintdTlLEFT_MENU" style="padding-top: 0px ">
378<a class="mainlinksLEFT_MENU" href="horizon-202.html" target="">Horizon 202</a> 
379 </TD></TR>
380<TR><TD style="padding-right:0px" >
381 <TABLE class=subLEFT_MENU> 
382 <TBODY> 
383<TR><TD class="subtdTlLEFT_MENU" >
384◦&nbsp; </TD><TD style="width:100%; padding-left:0px;"><a class="sublinksLEFT_MENU" href="swansea-docks-panoramas.html" target="">Swansea Docks Panoramas</a>  
385</TD></TR><TR><TD class="subtdTlLEFT_MENU" >
386◦&nbsp; </TD><TD style="width:100%; padding-left:0px;"><a class="sublinksLEFT_MENU" href="mumbles-panoramas.html" target="">Mumbles Panoramas</a>  
387</TD></TR><TR><TD class="subtdTlLEFT_MENU" >
388◦&nbsp; </TD><TD style="width:100%; padding-left:0px;"><a class="sublinksLEFT_MENU" href="afon-twrch-panoramas.html" target="">Afon Twrch Panoramas</a>  
389</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
390</TD></TR>
391</TBODY></TABLE>
392</td></tr></tbody></table>
393</noscript>
394
395</td>
396        </tr>
397
398        <tr>
399            <td>
400                <p>&nbsp;</p>
401            </td>
402        </tr>
403
404        <tr>
405            <td align="center">
405<script type="text/javascript"><!--
406google_ad_client = "pub-9660688514518834";
407google_ad_width = 160;
408google_ad_height = 600;
409google_ad_format = "160x600_as";
410google_ad_channel ="1536405994";
411google_ad_type = "text";
412google_color_border = "708090";
413google_color_bg = "708090";
414google_color_link = "FFFFFF";
415google_color_url = "B0C4DE";
416google_color_text = "FFFFFF";
417google_ui_features = "rc:0";
418//--></script>
vendor: 2 bytes, line 418
418
419<script type="text/javascript"
420src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
421</script>
421</td>
422        </tr>
423
424        <tr>
425            <td>
426                <p>&nbsp;</p>
427            </td>
428        </tr>
429    </tbody>
430</table>
431
432</div></td></tr>
433
434<tr><td colspan="2" class="XSP_FOOTER_PANEL"><table style="WIDTH: 700px; HEIGHT: 50px"
435       border="0"
436       cellspacing="0"
437       cellpadding="2"
438       align="center">
439    <tbody>
440        <tr>
441            <td style="WIDTH: 100px"
442                valign="top"
443                align="center"><a title="Subscribe to my feed"
444               href="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/WildernessWales"
445               type="application/rss+xml"
446               rel="alternate"><img style=
447               "BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; WIDTH: 32px; HEIGHT: 32px; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px"
448                 alt=""
449                 src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/feed-icon32x32.png"></a> <a title=
450                 "Subscribe to my feed"
451               href="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/WildernessWales"
452               type="application/rss+xml"
453               rel="alternate">Subscribe in a reader</a></td>
454
455            <td style="WIDTH: 600px"
456                valign="top"
457                align="center"><style>a.socNet { color:White;font-family:Arial; font-size:10pt;text-decoration:underline;;white-space: nowrap; }</style><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="440" style="overflow:hidden; word-wrap:break-word;  table-layout: fixed;border-left:1px Solid black;border-right:1px Solid black;border-top:1px Solid black;border-bottom:1px Solid black;"><tbody> 
458<tr><td style="padding-left:5; padding-right:5; background-color:Lavender; color:Black;font-family:Arial; font-size:10pt;text-align:Center"> 
459Bookmark this page</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align:Center; padding-left:5; padding-right:5; padding-top:5; padding-bottom:5; background-color:SlateGray"><a class="socNet" href="http://digg.com/submit?url=http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/articles/the-wilderness-concept.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><img border="0" style="margin-top:2; margin-bottom:2; vertical-align:middle; margin-left:10 ; margin-right:4" src=../images/digg.gif>Digg</a> <a class="socNet" href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/articles/the-wilderness-concept.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><img border="0" style="margin-top:2; margin-bottom:2; vertical-align:middle; margin-left:10 ; margin-right:4" src=../images/delicious.gif>Delicious</a> <a class="socNet" href="http://reddit.com/submit?url=http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/articles/the-wilderness-concept.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><img border="0" style="margin-top:2; margin-bottom:2; vertical-align:middle; margin-left:10 ; margin-right:4" src=../images/reddit.gif>Reddit</a> <a class="socNet" href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/articles/the-wilderness-concept.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><img border="0" style="margin-top:2; margin-bottom:2; vertical-align:middle; margin-left:10 ; margin-right:4" src=../images/stumbleupon.gif>Stumbleupon</a> <a class="socNet" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/articles/the-wilderness-concept.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><img border="0" style="margin-top:2; margin-bottom:2; vertical-align:middle; margin-left:10 ; margin-right:4" src=../images/facebook.gif>Facebook</a> </td></tr></tbody></table></td>
460
461            <td style="WIDTH: 100px"
462                valign="top"
463                align="center">
464                <!--WEBBOT bot="HTMLMarkup" startspan ALT="Site Meter" -->
464<script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript">var site="sm4pvs"</script>
464<script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript1.2" src="http://sm4.sitemeter.com/js/counter.js?site=sm4pvs">
465</script>
465<!-- Copyright (c)2000 Site Meter --><!--WEBBOT bot="HTMLMarkup" Endspan --></td>
466        </tr>
467
468        <tr>
469            <td valign="middle"
470                colspan="3"
471                align="center">© Paul Saunders 1999-2010. All Rights Reserved. <table width="100%"><tbody><tr><td> <table class="mainFOOTER_MENU"> 
472 <tbody> 
473<tr><td>
474 <span class="xsp1FOOTER_MENU"><a class="mainlinksFOOTER_MENU" href="../info.html" target="">Info</a></span>
475 <span class="xsp1FOOTER_MENU"><a class="mainlinksFOOTER_MENU" href="../links.html" target="">Links</a></span>
476 <span class="xsp1FOOTER_MENU"><a class="mainlinksFOOTER_MENU" href="../sitemap-page-order.html" target="">Site&nbsp;Map</a></span>
477</td></tr>
478</tbody></table>
479</td></tr></tbody></table>
480</td>
481        </tr>
482    </tbody>
483</table></td></tr></table>
484
485<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
486<!--
487document.getElementById("XSP_LEFT_PANEL_SPC").innerHTML = document.getElementById("XSP_LEFT_PANEL").innerHTML;
488document.getElementById("XSP_LEFT_PANEL").innerHTML = "&nbsp;";
489//-->
490</script>
vendor: 2 bytes, line 490
490
491<script type="text/javascript">
492var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");
493document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
494</script>
vendor: 2 bytes, line 494
494
495<script type="text/javascript">
496try {
497var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-627514-2");
498pageTracker._trackPageview();
499} catch(err) {}</script>
499
500</body>
501</html>
502

Line numbers count LF bytes from the start of the resource, as the search results do. Vendor segments are library code the classifier recognised; they are stored but not indexed. Bytes are shown as Latin1 characters, one per byte.