Page:The South Staffordshire Coalfield - Joseph Beete Jukes - 1859.djvu/18

2 3. The group of the Rowley Hills, of which the highest is about 820 feet above the sea.

4. The ridge of high ground running from Dudley to Sedgley, of which the most conspicuous points are Dudley Castle Hill, 730 feet; the Wren's Nest, 730 feet; and Sedgley Beacon, 760 feet, above the sea.

5. The high ground about Barr, of which Barr Beacon is the summit, being about 800 feet above the sea.

6. The high swelling plateau of Cannock Chase, the highest point of which, Castle Hill in Beaudesert Old Park, is 900 feet above the sea.

As the district forms part of the water-shed of England, it can, of course, have no navigable rivers; and ita streams are few and unimportant. The high ground that runs from Frankley Beeches to the Clent Hills, gives rise, on the one side, to the little river Stour, running by Halesowen and Stourbridge, to Stourport, where it joins the Severn, and with it flows into the Bristol Channel; while on the other side are the sources of the little river Rea, that flows through Birmingham into the Tame, and thence into the Trent and the German Ocean.

From Frankley Beeches, the water-shed runs through Rowley. Dudley, and Sedgley, to Wolverhampton. On the west of that ridge the streams run either directly into the Stour, or into the Smester Brook, which, rising just west of Wolverhampton, runs nearly due south to join the Stour near Stourbridge. On the east of the ridge, lying between it and the high ground of Barr Beacon, is the basin of the Tame river; the sources of this river are near Bloxwich, whence it runs south and south-east to Aston near Birmingham, and after receiving the Rea, sweeps off northward to Tamworth, in order to join the Trent. In the northern part of the district, the drainage runs entirely into the Trent, the eastern brooks running directly into that river, the western streams flowing first into the Penk, which after joining the Sow near Stafford flows into the Trent at Great Haywood.

The river Trent, coming from the N.N.W. to this spot, bounds the district on the N.E., cutting it off by a very well marked and sudden depression; the mean height of the Trent valley here being not more than 250 feet above the sea.

 

rocks, or geological formations, entering into the structure of this district are—