XORTHUMBERLAND AND DXJHHAM. 81 



3. ALN DISTRICT.* 



The main branch of the Aln has its sources on the eastern 

 slope of the Cheviot range near to Alnham, where the junction 

 of a few sikes, or mountain streamlets, forms the Ale- water. The 

 highest hills at the head of the vale of the Aln are the Grey Tade 

 of Coppall (900 feet), and Cochrane Pike (1096 feet), which, 

 like the other Cheviot hills, are bare and grassy, with here and 

 there an outbreak of porphyritic rock. The general course of 

 the river is from west to east, and its length about 24 miles. 

 The upper portion flows in a pretty wide valley, between the 

 porphyritic hills on the north and the great sandstone ridge on 

 the south and south-east. It skirts the base of this ridge for 

 1 1 miles till it reaches Brislaw, where it cuts through the ridge 

 which, at the Beacon Hill on Alnwick Moor, attains 808 feet ; 

 and after crossing Hulme Park, which extends about 3 miles, 

 and, passing by Hulme and Alnwick Abbeys and Alnwick Castle, 

 it winds its way south-eastward and falls into the sea at Aln- 

 mouth. 



The drainage area of the upper portion is from 3 to 1 1 miles 

 wide, the principal affluents on the south being the Coo and 

 Edlingham Bujns, which are more than 5 miles in length, and 

 drain the moorlands of the sandstone ridge about Coo Crag (1004 

 feet), and of Eimside (816 feet), where there is a station for 

 Cornus suecica. The ridge is here several miles broad, heathery, 

 and in many places boggy, and extends southward without in- 

 terruption to the Coquet. On its eastern slope Eugley Burn has 

 its source in Alnwick Moor and in Eugley Old Dene ; by the 

 side of this burn grow Carduus heterophyllus, Crepis succiscsfolia, 

 and Gagea lutea. On the north of the Aln two branch-streams, 

 Eglingham and Shipley Burns, which have a course of about 

 6 miles, and unite and join the Aln near Shipley, have their 

 sources in the Chillingham and Charlton Moors, which have an 

 elevation of from 600 to 1000 feet. At the base of the Egling- 

 ham hills is Kimmer Lough, now about 9 acres in extent, but 

 formerly much larger. 



* By Mr. Tate. 



