328 TYNEDALE ESCAEPMENTS ; 



The reader will remember the fable of the bundle of sticks, diffi- 

 cult to break together, but easily disposed of one by one. In 

 forming these crags atmospheric disintegration has taken the 

 easy method. The smaller beds have been overcome singly. 

 The limestone, for instance, once formed a separate escarpment, 

 similar to the low grassy wave formed by another ten-foot lime- 

 stone in the peaty hollow in front. The diagram will explain 

 the process of retrogression. Each bed in turn has added to the 

 height of the escarpment and the depth and breadth of the trough 

 in front ; and I need only add that if the signs of waste prove it 

 equal to its task in the main bed, much more is it so in the 

 minor ones, which have crept under its shelter, on any theory, 

 because more rapidly destroyed.*' 



The stage of escarpment-formation so well exemplified in this 

 watershed is obviously an advanced, but it is not the ultimate, 

 stage of atmospheric denudation. Following out development 

 upon the lines laid down, the ultimate stage would probably see 

 the complete dominance of one escarpment or of a few. Of this we 

 have a clear forecast in the appearance of the Whinsill at Sewing- 

 shields, with the semi-terraciform ridges, like flounces, in front, 

 and the prolonged dipslope behind (see Pig. No. 1) ; but the con- 

 tingency is evidently still immensely remote. Watershed-denu- 

 dation, to the depth of many hundreds of feet, would be necessary 

 in order to effect it, and as long as such small escarpments as 

 that of the ten-foot limestone below King's Crag, with its forty- 

 five feet of dipslope, have an independent existence, we are 

 probably nearer the starting-point than the conclusion. 



^sca/rpments newr the Valley. — Terraces. — "We pass on to the 

 other extreme of the escarpment. It is self-evident that a scarp 

 with a short dipslope backed by higher ground is a terrace ; and 

 from the tendency to fusion into compound ridges near the 

 valley the terrace form may be expected there abundantly. No 



* An allusion above to the peat seen one or two feet deep in front of the King's Crag 

 may be amplified in a note. There are those who argue that the presence of peat is a 

 sign of absence of disintegration. Probably it is, but only temporarily. In the summer 

 time the watercourses are often full of trailing grass. But go there in -winter and the 

 very earth which it grew on may be washed av.ay. Alluvium and peat generallj'^ lie in 

 iiolUnvs, but where they do not thoy will not long interfere with otmospheric changes. 



