PHYSICAL FEATURES AND CLIMATE Lxvn 
on a small scale, for the sources of the great rivers Clyde, 
Tweed, and Annan are all close together, hence the old 
saying, * Annan ran, Tweed won, Clyde fell and broke his 
neck/ "* All the northern part of the county is upland. 
Mountains or high hiUs, intersected with a few glens or 
valleys, occupy a mean breadth of seven or eight miles, and 
spurs of these run southwards to lengths extending from 
two to eight miles, the most striking being Cairnkenna 
(1,819 feet) in Penpont parish ; Queensberry (2,285 feet), 
in Closeburn parish ; and Langholm HiU (1,162 feet) near 
Langholm. 
The region southwards of the uplands breaks into three 
great " dales," which take their names from the three 
principal rivers of the county : the Nith, the Annan, and 
the Esk. Into these rivers flow numerous smaU rivulets, 
but three streams, each ten miles or more in length, have 
an independent course southwards to the Solway Firth — 
the Lochar, the Cummertrees Pow, and the Kirtle Water. 
The river Sark, which forms the south-eastern boundary 
between Dumfriesshire and Cumberland, also flows 
independently into the Firth. Several of the tributary 
streams, hke the three principal rivers, give their names 
to their own basins. The Dryfe and the Moffat, which join 
the Annan ; and the Ewes, which flows into the Esk, giving, 
for example, their names to Dryfesdale, Moflatdale, and 
Ewesdale. 
Mention must be made of Cairn Water (called the Cluden 
in its lower reaches below Routin Brig), which forms 
the boundary between the county and Kirkcudbrightshire 
on the south-west, and which joins the Nith about one mile 
above Dumfries ; and Liddel Water, which forms a portion of 
the south-eastern boundary between Dumfriesshire and 
Cumberland, rises in Roxburghshire and flows into the Esk 
a mile and a half below Canonbie. Of the other tributary 
streams, the more important are, perhaps, the Waters of 
KeUo, Crawick, Euchan, Cample, and Scaur, the latter 
* G. F. Scott-Elliot, in litt., April 2nd, 1909. 
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