134 THE Lower NITH. 
They are the results of tremendous floods due to the ob- 
struction of the barrier. Across these plains the river has 
worked incessantly for thousands of years endeavouring to 
right the wrong of a former age. 
FLOODING OF DUMFRIES. 
Although the Nith has been augmented by the Cluden 
Water, it has not accomplished so much vertical cutting at 
Castledykes as at Dalscoue. Three new features meet us :-— 
(1) A broad band of very hard rock crossing the channel; 
(2) a sharp elbow turn giving the rock a greater power of 
resistance; (3) the presence of tides. 
The band of breccia is probably a spur descending from 
the Craigs. It is continued along the western side of the 
river to the Caul, and protects the Troqueer bank from 
erosion. This has caused the Nith to impinge upon the 
Dumfries bank, cutting downwards 30 feet, and forming the 
flood plains of Dock Park, Whitesands, and Greensands. 
This sad spectacle of destruction has continued since the days 
of Neolithic man, and will continue until we wake up to the 
necessity of assisting the river to adapt the size of its channel 
to the great volume of flood water stored up in the winter’s 
snow throughout the Southern Uplands. 
GLENCAPLE RIVER. 
South of the Castledykes the Nith enters into an old 
valley extending to the Solway. The tributary valley of 
Crook’s Pow enters the trunk valley near Kelton, and widens 
it considerably in that neighbourhood. The Glencaple valley 
assumes its true proportion just below the village. Its valley 
walls at Kenneth Bank and Kirkconnel are very steep, and 
if extended downward below the present merse they would 
produce a V-shaped valley extending more than too feet 
beneath sea level. Undoubtedly the Glencaple river was of 
considerable age when the Pliocene uplift took place. This 
elevation gave it new life and power to lower its bed in agree- 
ment with the original Nith in the Lochar valley. During 
the 100 feet and 50 feet submergence the river was drowned. 
At the pause of the 25 feet beach the silting process began. 
