Mr. H. Holland on the Cheshire Rock-salt District. 41 



The divisions which I have pointed out in the Cheshire plain are 

 still further marked by the course of the streams in this tract of 

 country. The Dee is the great river of the v^^estern plain; the 

 Weaver and its subordinate streams receive all the waters of the 

 southern division ; while the Mersey and its tributaries do the 

 same in the northern portion. From their local relation to the 

 great beds of rock-salt, the streams of the southern or central plair> 

 possess a peculiar importance. 



The Weaver rises in the Peckforton Hills, near the Shropshire 

 border, runs for some miles towards the south-east, then making a 

 sudden flexion to the north, continues in this direction, by Nantwich 

 and Winsford, to Northwich, about thirty miles further. Here it 

 takes a north-westerly course to Frodsham, where it expands into a 

 sandy acstuary, connected with the channel of the Mersey. It receives 

 its principal accessions at Northwich, where it is joined by the united 

 streams of the Dane and Wheelock from the south-east, and by a 

 stream called Witton-Brook from the east. At Anderton, a little 

 below Northwich, the valley which has hitherto been comparatively 

 wide and flat, is suddenly contracted by the approach of two ranges 

 of high ground ; that on the western side of the river connecting 

 itself by a gradual rise with the heights of Delamere Forest ; the 

 opposite one passing by a series of irregular elevations into the range 

 of high land, which separates the southern from the northern plain. 

 At Frodsham the river flows, as I before mentioned, between the 

 termination of this high ground and that of the ridge which crosses 

 the county from north to south, the hills thus opposed correspond- 

 ing perfectly in appearance and structure. We have thus two distinct 

 contractions in the valley of the Weaver below Northwich j a cir- 

 cumstance in some degree worthy of notice. 



F 



