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Report on the Farm-Prize Competition 
lead mines, and those of other minerals, engineering and 
ordnance works, manufactories of chemicals, glass, pottery, &c., 
shipbuilding yards, and many other industries, make the valley 
of the Tyne and its ports one of the busiest and, it may be 
added, one of the dirtiest in the kingdom. 
This concentration of population and activity of trade have, 
as will be seen, an important influence on the agriculture of 
the surrounding: countv. 
Physical aspects. — In physical aspect Northumberland "is a' 
tumbled incline of fells and ridges intersected by valleys, and 
subsiding eastwards from the hill borders of Scotland and 
Cumberland into lessening undulations and a shelving coast." * 
The western part of the county is entirely hilly or even 
mountainous. The Cheviot Hills, which lie partly in Scotland, 
project themselves considerably over the Border, and occupy an 
area of 90,000 acres in Northumberland. A continuation of this 
chain of hills separates Cumberland from Northumberland and 
runs into Durham. Their conical or dome-shaped summits 
range from 1300 to 2600 feet above the sea. Near the point 
where the three counties meet rises Kelhope Law to the height 
of 2208 feet. East of this range of hills lie detached masses of 
hill, among them Simonside, near Rothbury, about 1400 feet 
in altitude, and numerous moorlands lying 1000 feet or more 
above the sea. 
Rivers. — The principal rivers rise in the western hills. The 
South Tyne enters the county from Cumberland in the extreme 
south-west. It runs in a northerly direction to Haltwhistle, where 
it turns eastward, receiving shortly afterwards the waters of the 
Allen from the south. Near Hexham it is joined by the North 
Tyne, which has come down from the north-west, having risen 
among the Cheviots on the Scottish border, and received in its 
course many tributaries, the principal one being the Rede. 
Below Hexham the river flows in a broad stream eastwards. 
Near Newcastle it receives the Derwent, which has risen near 
Allenhead, and has run a course of thirty miles partly on 
the edge of the county and partly through the county of 
Durham. From Wylam for nineteen miles to the sea the 
river is a wide estuary artificially deepened. In the valleys 
of these rivers there is charming and varied scenery as well as 
some excellent farming. The whole catchment basin of the 
Tyne with its tributaries is 1053 square miles. 
The VVansbeck rises near Bellin^ham, si few miles east of 
Redesdale, and runs eastward by JNIorpeth to the sea at 
Cambois. The Coquet rises among the Cheviot Hills, and runs 
* ' Encyclopaedia Britannica,' Art. Nortliumbcrlaud. 
