^^01lT^UMBEfilAND AND DURHAM. 101 



opens out into the main dale, flanked in tlie lower part of it by a 

 fine limestone cliff called Bisliopley Crag. Soon the limestone 

 dips below the surface, and as we proceed eastward is no more 

 seen. At "Wolsingham the "Wear receives a small feeder from 

 the north, which is familiar to the readers of Winch's Flora 

 under the name of "Westcrow Burn ; soon afterwards the Bed- 

 burn also, which has several branches and drains a considerable 

 tract of undulated gritstone moor that lies between "Wolsingham 

 and Eglestone, joins it upon the south. iN'ow the bounding moors 

 rapidly decline in level and we reach the line of the out-crop of 

 the Coal Measures, which from Satley passes almost due south 

 across the Wear tract by way of Towlaw, Harperley Gate, Wit- 

 ton-le-Wear, stretching, however, several miles to the west to 

 curve round the head of the Auckland Yalley, in which are 

 situated several valuable mines. This Auckland stream rises 

 amongst the high moors very near the Tees, in the vicinity of 

 Eglestone, and, after a course of 20 miles towards the east, joins 

 the main river at Bishop Auckland. From Wolsingham to this 

 point, a distance of 12 miles, the course of the Wear has been 

 towards the south-east. Here it turns at a right angle, and with 

 many windings flows towards the north-east till it falls into the 

 sea. Now the rounded moors sink to 900 feet, then to 800 feet, 

 and as we near Dixrham, to 600 feet. On the north the Brow- 

 ney, from Butsfield and Lanchester, drains a wide extent of 

 moorish coal country, and upon the bank of the valley below it 

 stand the park and castle of Brancepeth. The city of Durham, 

 over-topped by the towers of its noble minster, occupies a com- 

 manding position on a hill, three sides of which are washed by 

 the Wear, on the edge of the moorland. Between this and the 

 western escarpment of the Magnesian Limestone lies the lowest 

 ground in this part of the country, across which the main line of 

 railway runs north and south. Past the ruins of Pinchale Abbey, 

 the villages of Cocken and Chester-le-Street, and the park and 

 castle of Lambton, the Wear winds through this low country 

 with often wooded and deeply excavated banks : the last 4 

 miles of its course it flows due east through a break in the lime- 

 stone till it falls into the sea at Sunderland. The Magnesian 



