Page:Transactions of the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1867).djvu/119

Rh opens out into the main dale, flanked in the lower part of it by a fine limestone cliff called Bishopley Crag. Soon the limestone dips below the surface, and as we proceed eastward is no more seen. At Wolsingham the Wear receives a small feeder from the north, which is familiar to the readers of Winch's Flora under the name of Westcrow Burn; soon afterwards the Bedburn also, which has several branches and drains a considerable tract of undulated gritstone moor that lies between Wolsingham and Eglestone, joins it upon the south. Now the bounding moors rapidly decline in level and we reach the line of the out-crop of the Coal Measures, which from Satley passes almost due south across the Wear tract by way of Towlaw, Harperley Gate, Witton-le-Wear, stretching, however, several miles to the west to curve round the head of the Auckland Valley, in which are situated several valuable mines. This Auckland stream rises amongst the high moors very near the Tees, in the vicinity of Eglestone, and, after a course of 20 miles towards the east, joins the main river at Bishop Auckland. From Wolsingham to this point, a distance of 12 miles, the course of the Wear has been towards the south-east. Here it turns at a right angle, and with many windings flows towards the north-east till it falls into the sea. How the rounded moors sink to 900 feet, then to 800 feet, and as we near Durham, to 600 feet. On the north the Browney, from Butsfield and Lanchester, drains a wide extent of moorish coal country, and upon the bank of the valley below it stand the park and castle of Brancepeth. The city of Durham, over-topped by the towers of its noble minster, occupies a commanding position on a hill, three sides of which are washed by the Wear, on the edge of the moorland. Between this and the western escarpment of the Magnesian Limestone lies the lowest ground in this part of the country, across which the main line of railway runs north and south. Past the ruins of Finchale Abbey, the villages of Cocken and Chester-le-Street, and the park and castle of Lambton, the Wear winds through this low country with often wooded and deeply excavated banks: the last 4 miles of its course it flows due east through a break in the limestone till it falls into the sea at Sunderland. The Magnesian