BY HFGH MILLER. , 28? 



weathered down almost as if razed to the ground ; and even when 

 standing erect in a sheer wall near a hundred feet high, skirted 

 by a sloping pile of its own ruin. 



The features I attempt to describe are characteristic of the dis- 

 trict. Even when more obscure, — when unmarked by crags and 

 partly cloaked by superficial clays, these ridges and furrows, 

 when seen in a bird's eye view, often seem to run for distances 

 so nearly parallel and so regular as to look like the work of gi- 

 gantic ploughs — an enormous rig-and-fur, as a Scottish plough- 

 man might say. It is almost surprising that none of those 

 legends that elsewhere ascribe natural features to the freaks of 

 old-world giants or magicians, have here given Pionns or Frost 

 giants credit, for once, with business-like purpose and industry. 



Following the series fronting the Sewingshields Crag along its 

 E.lSr.E. trend we are carried down into the valley of the IS^orth 

 Tyne, and in its slopes find our ridges, ere now become compara- 

 tively lumpish and ill-defined, modifying into obscure steps or 

 ledges, which descend with the southward dip of the strata to- 

 wards the bed of the river. Instead, however, of bordering the 

 valley, as do the almost horizontal rock beds of the Yorkshire 

 dales, with fine terraces, rising step beyond step like the vine- 

 clad terrace-work of the East, it here requires a practised eye to 

 trace out their lines ; but at some points the successive steps 

 stand clearly enough defined. 



Relation of Features to Roch- Structure. — Every one who has had 

 occasion to connect the underlying geological features of a district 

 with the character of its scenery, is well aware that at least its 

 minor configuration is greatly dependent upon internal rock- 

 structure. Especially is this remarked by those who have 

 constructed sections representing the relations of beds of rock 

 to each other and to the surface. In the rudest attempts at 

 geological section drawing, as well as in tlic perfection of it 

 in the publications of the Geological Survey, it is to be con- 

 stantly remarked that the hard and comparatively indestructible 

 rock-masses rise into prominence above softer masses near 



