BETWEEN THE TYNE AND THE WANSBECK lOI 



A possible objection to the view sketched above of the 

 mode of origin of the swires in this district is that none exists 

 at a lower level than the Woolsington one (250 feet), and that 

 if the ice retreated as uniformly as it apparently did between 

 Heddon and Woolsington, then the Kenton Ridge should 

 have been breached by a stream from the temporarily flooded 

 Ouseburn Valley. It is quite possible that such a thing did 

 happen, and that Jesmond Dene was initiated in this way, 

 and became the permanent outlet for the drainage of that 

 valley ; indeed such a view would simplify the explanation of 

 many peculiarities of this basin-like depression. East of this, 

 although the running of the Kenton Ridge is taken up by one 

 passing through Longbenton and Backworth, yet the ridges to 

 the north die out, and thus little opportunity is afforded for 

 the formation of lakes dammed by an easterly ice-sheet. Any 

 evidence which might have borne on the point in the coastal 

 regions has probably been obliterated during the depression 

 of land which followed upon the close of the Glacial Period. 



The History of the Dewley Burn and the Ouseburn. ■■ 



There are some peculiarities connecting these two burns 

 which call for notice here, inasmuch as they are, in part at 

 least, explicable in terms of the hypothesis of ice action de- 

 veloped above. The Dewley Burn rises near Heddon Steads, 

 flows east and enters the Heddon Slack near its head. This it 

 traverses in a southerly direction, turning east near Heddon 

 Mill, and entering the broad drift-filled valley which belongs 

 topographically to the Ouseburn. Turning sharply south at 

 Dewley Hill, it forsakes this valley, and cutting the deep 

 gorge of Walbottle Dene, enters the Tyne at Newburn. A 

 short distance east of Dewley Hill the Ouseburn rises, there 

 being no high land between the two burns. The subsequent 

 course of the Ouseburn has already been traced. 



I would suggest in explanation of these peculiarities that 

 the " Ouseburn " in pre-glacial times rose near Heddon Mill, 

 and flowed east by north in the way already indicated ; the 

 Dewley Burn had then no representative, for the gaps of 



