KORTHUMBERLAND AND DTJEHAM. 89 



southward to the head of the Cairncleugh Burn, the first-men- 

 tioned peak 1600 feet, but the others only from 1000 feet to 

 1300 feet in altitude. In the 15 miles which it flows eastward 

 before the Reedwater joins it, the ridge on the north has sunk to 

 800 feet. This is penetrated by one priucipal stream, the two 

 branches of which are called the Tarret and Tarset. The Border 

 Counties Railway now runs along the whole length of the dale 

 and passes out at its head, forming one of the principal lines of 

 communication between iN'ewcastle and Edinburgh. Above Bel- 

 lingham the population is thin, and the villages are very small. 

 There are considerable plantations about Eaelder Castle and Hes- 

 leyside, and workable collieries at Kielder and Falstone. "In the 

 neighbourhood of Smalesmouth is the station for Convallaria ver- 

 ticillata. On the south, between the Worth Tyne and Irthing, 

 is a wide space of barren moor, crested in some places with edges 

 of gritstone, which rises scarcely anywhere above 1000 feet, and 

 on this side the ascent from the river is very gradual. At Bel- 

 lingham the stream is from 30 to 40 yards across, and 375 feet 

 above sea-level. Here it is joined by the Hareshaw Burn on the 

 north, on which is Hareshaw Linn, the finest of the Northum- 

 brian waterfalls. The waterfall is about a mile distant from the 

 town. Just above the railway we have to climb over the shale 

 heaps of the iron-works. Then the sides of the glen become 

 steeper and we lose sight of the town and surrounding moors, 

 and enter a winding ravine where uncertain wandering paths lead 

 up and down amongst the trees and underwood. First the lower 

 fall is reached, a perpendicular ledge of rock some 20 feet in 

 height, over which the stream breaks in two places, the rocks 

 continued on both sides a little distance down the glen. The 

 principal fall is about half a mile further up, and is of a much 

 more important character. On the left a precipice rises up with- 

 out break to a height of nearly 100 feet, one sheer wall of massive 

 rock, brown and cool towards the base, with green mosses in the 

 crevices ; higher up, where the sun sometimes catches it, bare 

 brown and white, or yellow- stained with lichen, the summit 

 clothed with ivy and bird-cherry, and waving branches of elm 

 and rowan. The stream flows from an opening half-way down 



