1 899 S. BUCKMAN. — WYE VALLIiY 3I 



of the Mississippi.* Now, in soft rocks this process 

 woLihi go on much more quickl}' than in the hard 

 Carboniferous Limestone. And it is possible that this 

 process of straightening out may have gone on consider- 

 abl}' in the Old Red Sandstone area north of Tintern, 

 thus accounting for the straighter course of the river in 

 that portion. 



diiite [)Ossibly, however, the same process has been 

 accom[)lished in certain cases in the Carboniferous Lime- 

 stone part of the valley. In Fig. 5 is shown what may 

 have been a previous, more meandering course of the 

 Wye just north of the Windcliff. It will be seen that it 

 represents the river in a somewhat analogous stage of 

 development to that represented in Fig. 3. Then the 

 river is supposed to have straightened its course by 

 cutting through the neck D, and so has produced the 

 present day contour shown in Fig. 6, which is a copy of 

 the Ordnance Survey i-inch map. 



This supposition will explain the greater width of the 

 valley just north of the Windcliff, and why the river is 

 now far away from the cliff which it must once have 

 been cutting at. 



Between Tintern and Tintern Parva there is a noticeable 

 horse-shoe bend. On the east is a spur of Carboniferous 

 Limestone still remaining; and this rock may be said to 

 have contributed to the preservation of the bend. But at 

 the foot of this spur is a jutting-out piece of Old Red 

 Sandstone, and it will be seen that the river is working 

 awav on both sides of this strip to narrow the neck. 

 Now that the Carboniferous Limestone has been worn 

 away sufficiently to leave this neck of comparatively soft 

 rock to the mercy of the river, it can only be a question 



* While this paper was in the press I have found an interesting example of a 

 pronounced meander on the point of extinction — one corresponding to Fig. 3, with a 

 very narrow neck. It is on the Upper Cohi, just south of Witliington. 



