BY HUGH MILLER. 315 



which is therefore much less representative of a longitudinal river 

 than its more important turn. The analogy of the A fails here. 

 Close to the fork, however, on the north side of that curious sen- 

 tinel hill between the two, the "Warden Hill, there arches over 

 from one to the other, almost like the bar of the A, a series of 

 escarpments, which present a tolerable epitome of some charac- 

 teristic facts elsewhere spread over miles. Stand on the north- 

 west side of the hill, and look along the furrowed hollow below. 

 Towards the higher ground on the left, — the summit of the 

 arching cross-bars, — the single ridges stand out comparatively 

 broad, distinct, and high ; but as the eye follows them down to- 

 wards the jN"orth Tyne they gradually thin and lower, until they 

 seem to sheathe themselves in the earth. In this bolder water- 

 shed-configaration of the individual beds, clearly seen in profile 

 from Chollerford Bridge, and this tapering and massing together 

 of them in descending, we have what is repeated again and again 

 in the watersheds of the district. 



In this region of England we thus have two extremes of Es- 

 carpmental Development — the simple ridge and the compound ; 

 just as in the theoretical instance of a former page. In fol- 

 lowing the subject out further I will take the extremes last; 

 and consider now several points about the system of ^'Rig-and- 

 Fur!' which stretches between them.** 



Th.Q Ri(j-and-Fiir of I^scarpinents. 1. Relation of the Water - 

 floiv to the Ridges. — It will be readily seen to be an important 

 question bearing on the origin of the ridges — Did the waterflow 

 choose its lines guided by the main gradients of the ground, or 

 did it find furrows ready-made to coerce it along them ? The 

 question may be answered by taking into hand an ordnance map 

 of the classic region of the Roman "Wall between the North and 

 South Tyne. The eye is at once struck by the number of streams 

 flowing E.N.E. or W.S.W., — the range of the '' riggs." Nearly 

 all the smaller streams are disposed in that direction, and it 

 need hardly be said that they are guided by the furrows of the 



* I adopt tliis expression us concise and descriptive. I am ignorant liow far it is 

 known in tlie South; liut every ScotclnvoniaM, at Jcast, knows it well as applied to rililied 

 knitting. 



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