Page:Transactions of the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1867).djvu/86

68

Under this head we propose to go through, one by one, the districts founded upon the river-drainage as they stand in the map, and to attempt to describe briefly the most salient features of their physical geography. It is not without considerable hesitation that we lay before the members of the Club a summary of the notes which we have had, from time to time, the opportunity of making upon this head, hesitation arising from the feeling that a large proportion of them are better acquainted with the country about which we are writing than we are ourselves. But we hold strongly to the opinion that it adds very much to the interest and value of a local Flora, that the physical characters of the tract of country to which it relates should be explained, side by side with the enumeration of the plants; and we expect, of course, that this paper will meet the eyes of many to whom our wide sweeps of moor, lowland denes, streams and fields, and long line of craggy coast are ideals unrealized, and we trust also that it may help to recall pleasant memories of bygone excursions in the minds of those to whom these are amongst things familiar.

The total area of Northumberland is 1952 square miles. Its greatest length, from north to south, is 60 miles; its breadth, from Tynemouth to the Irthing, 54 miles; but in the northern part, opposite Wooler, not more than 24 miles. The area of Durham is 973 square miles; its greatest length 48 miles, and its breadth 39 miles. The total area of the two is 2925 square miles, which is about one-seventeenth of England exclusive of Wales, and one-thirtieth of Britain, exclusive of Ireland.

The towns of Northumberland are twelve in number—in the first rank Newcastle, then North Shields and Tynemouth, to all intents one, then the three old centres of feudal times, Alnwick, Morpeth, and Hexham; the others, Allenton, Belford, Bellingham, Haltwhistle, Rothbury, and Wooler, small country towns, of an almost entirely agricultural character. The towns of Durham are thirteen—Durham, Bishop Auckland, Barnard Castle,