174 ^II^- J- J- HILLS REPORT OF 



surprise in the discovery of a huge bed of viper's bugloss on 

 the cindery waste of a railway embankment. The plants 

 were at their very best, the striking blue of the blooms 

 arresting one's attention from a considerable distance. 



Just a little way from here our route led us through a 

 sheltered railway cutting, which was profusely clad with a 

 variety of wild flowers which thrived in the shelter of the deep 

 banks. In addition to many common plants, there were one 

 or two species of St. John's wort, and a patch of an unusual 

 convolvulus with small white flowers. 



Following the railway track we arrived at the viaduct 

 which spans the head of Howens' Gill, and from the rail 

 level of which a most charming view of the countryside is 

 obtained. From this point of vantage the history of the Gill 

 was explained by Mr. Watts, who described the leading 

 features and outlined the geological history from the glacial 

 periods onwards, giving a most lucid account of how the 

 various strata had been formed and how the retreating ice had 

 left a deposit of some 40 feet or more of alluvium in the bed 

 of the now deserted watercourse. He explained how stones 

 of such widely different character as the Cheviot porphyry 

 and the Shap and Criffel granites were borne by the moving 

 ice from different directions and left as a deposit when the ice 

 receded, and how the then river in the Gill was fed by the 

 melting ice in the highlands until a later time when the 

 Derwent Valley became the natural channel for draining the 

 area, and the ancient river in the Gill ceased to exist. 



Leaving the railway track we wound our way down the 

 steep slopes of the Dene, and finding a shaded spot in the 

 shadow of the great piers of the bridge, rested awhile. Here 

 Mr. Watts gave us the history and a number of interesting 

 details connected with the erection of this noble viaduct. 

 One of the outstanding features from a constructional point of 

 view is the successful use of th</ inverted arch in the 

 foundations of the piers. By this means the stupendous load 

 of the bridge is taken and distributed over a great area, in a 



