Page:Transactions of the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1867).djvu/114

96 sweep of fir plantation stretches from Dilston eastward, and further back, between Slealey and the Derwent, is a bank of heathery moor within 5 miles of the Tyne, which extends eastward as far as Shotley and Minster-acres House, with an elevation of from 900 to 1000 feet. The Derwent forms the boundary of the district for 15 miles on the south, but its upper branches on the Northumbrian side are very inconsiderable. At Allansford Bridge it is 400 feet in altitude, and at Shotley Bridge 50 feet lower. Two pleasant wooded denes stretch down from the moor to the Tyne at Biding Mills and Bywell. North of the Tyne there is a gradually-sloping bank, cultivated and in some places wooded, which attains 490 feet above Corbridge, 520 feet at Heddon, and 400 feet opposite Newcastle. The principal wooded denes of the north side of the river are Whittle Dene near Ovingham, Walbottle Dene near Newburn, Scotswood Dene above Scotswood, and Heaton Dene below Newcastle, none of them more than about 2 miles in length, and the latter especially, like the last 15 miles of the Tyne, with but little of the indigenous vegetation still lingering. The collieries are principally concentrated in the area between Newburn, Blyth, and Shields. There are two small streams between the Tyne and Wansbeck, which are called the Pont and Blyth, the former of which is connected with Prestwick Carr, a large morass in the low country 4 miles north of Newcastle, which was once a good botanical locality, but is now enclosed and almost destroyed by drainage. Except about Whitley and Tynemouth this part of the coast is low and sandy, but in some of the wooded denes of the interior several of the Montane plants are scattered.