BOOK CLII. EUROPE. Europe Continued.—Physical features of the British Islands. An atmosphere of fogs, rain and perpetual variation; a political freedom which has long been the envy of the most enlightened nations: an established religion owing all its power to its disconnexion with every foreign influence: a perfect freedom of conscience: an industry which has increased tenfold the riches of the soil:-all these have given to the English, a sombre, abrupt and meditative character; a pride which leads them to look upon themselves as the first nation of the world; a solitary and retired mode of life: a set of manners different from those of the rest of Europe: intelligence superior to that of their neighbors: a species of egotism and a multitude of prejudices which give rise among the most numerous class, to that exclusive feeling which people agree to call national character; and among those who govern, to those principles, sometimes at war with justice, which have stamped British policy with a certain obliquity of character that has rendered it an object of distrust even to their own allies. Still Great Britain, in spite of the narrow limits of her actual territory, has so great a weight in the scale of the world; her power, essentially factitious, like that of the machines which multiply the product of human industry, places her upon so commanding an eminence, that no one can avoid admiring in her the spectacle of a formidable power, which like the steam that drives the vast enginery of her manufactures, or the ocean where sho pretends to reign sole mistress, has roused up in her favour, BOOK 678 BOOK CLII. Enumera British Isles. or shaken to their foundations, almost every nation of the earth. The British Isles consist of -- Great Britain, comprising tion of the England proper, Wales and Scotland; -- Ireland lying west of this: the Hebrides west of Scotland: the Orkney Islands north of these last: and still farther north the Shetland Islands. South of Great Britain are a small number of islands, the most considerable of which is Jersey: to the S. W. is the little archipelago of the Scilly Islands. Several others, hereafter to be named, are scattered about among the preceding. We shall begin our description with those nearest the coast of France, the Anglo-Norman Isles. Six leagues from the western coast of the department of La Manche lies Jersey, which the Itinerary of Antoninus calls Sarnia; this island is defended on the north by rocks of 200 feet elevation: white on the south a surface of shifting sand sinks nearly to the level of the sea. Its length from W. to E. is 4 leagues; its breadth 2: the centre is hilly, and the soil fertile: the orchards of apple trees which cover it do not admit the cultivation of corn, but furnish annually 26,000 hogsheads of cider: and numerous droves of cattle pasture among the trees. The principal manufactures are woollen stockings and caps. Guernsey, farther north, and equal in breadth, but shorter by a league, offers a diversified vegetation. Wood is scarce, but the seaweed thrown upon the shore, serves at once for manure and fuel. The little isle of Sark, near Guernsey, is surrounded by rocks: the air is free from fogs, and the soil produces sufficient grain for the consumption of the inhabitants: the interior abounds in rabbits, and the shores in sea-fowl. North of these islands, and within 3 leagues of Cape La Hogue is Alderney, called by the French Origny, and known formerly to the Romans by the name of Arica: this island is small, but sufliciently fertile to render its corn an important object of commerce. In the night we may descry from the French coast, the three lights which shine from the summits of three isolated rocks, against which the breakers dash and render the shore dangerous in a storm. Off against Land's End, the southwestern extremity of Great Britain, lie the small isles of Scilly, 145 in number, but of which five only are inhabited, namely, St Mary, St Agnes, Tresco, St Martin and Bryor, or Brehar. Excellent wheat is raised in these last. They were known to the ancients by the name of Cassiterides. Numbers of druidical monuments are found upon them. Anney is remarkable for the numerous druidical stone basins which it contains. This island, now desert, was probably larger in former times: at low water, the foundations may be seen of many buildings overflowed by the sea. BOOK CLII. The Island of Great Britain is the largest in Europe: Great its extreme length is about 200 leagues: in the south it is Britain. 110 leagues broad; at the centre 28: and near the centre of Scotland 62. It is situated between 49° 57' and 58° 43' north latitude, and between 35' and 8° 34' west longitude from Paris. Its surface contains 11,400 leagues. Its eastern and southern shores are less deeply indented than the western: they are consequently bolder. There are no islands upon the eastern coast, and upon the southern none except that of Wight and two others of inconsiderable size: on the west are those of Scilly already described, Anglesey, Man, Arran, Ila, Jura, Mull, Tiry, Egg, Rum, Sky, the Hebrides and Orkneys. In the south the largest bay is that of Exeter. In the east are, beginning at the south, the sandy bay of the Thames; the Wash, where the little stream called the Glen meets the sea; the frith which receives the Humber; the friths of Forth, Murray and Dor- noch. On the western coast are the friths of Clyde and Solway; the bays of Morecambe and Arlech, and the Bristol Channel, which receives the Severn. Moun The mountains of this island constitute a system to which belong those of all the British Isles. Excluding tains. Ireland, they compose three groups: the first toward the north is formed by the highlands of Caithness and Inverness; of this group the Orkneys, the Hebrides, Sky and Mull are the extremities: The second consists of the Grampian Hills and some other eminences which terminate at the friths of Forth and Clyde: The third comprises the Cheviot Hills and the broken surface of Wales and the BOOK CLII. Basins and south part of the island. The first group does not rise above 2500 feet: the highest eminence in the second attains to 4400, and in the third a few summits rise to 2500 and 3100 feet. There are no basins of great extent. The hills of Caithness, and the Grampian chain form the one most northerly the most considerable and rapid river of this The Spey. basin is the Spey which flows with a swift course, and with much obstruction from cataracts into Murray Frith. The southern ramifications of the Grampians form with the The Forth. Cheviots an extensive basin through which flows the Forth: this river in a course of 60 leagues traverses an extent of meadows, forests, and fertile plains, and its waters abound in excellent fish. The Moorlands and a few other hills The Ouse, surround the vast basin of the Ouse, which under the name of Ure rises in the valley of Wensley, flows to Aysgarth, where it forms a beautiful cascade, takes the name of Ouse after receiving the Swale, and the name of Humber upon joining the Ocean. The ridge which forms the southern limit of this basin, bounds on the north that of the most important river of Great Britain, the Thames. The basins of the southern face of the island are too small to give rise to any considerable stream. Those on the western face are of small extent except that traversed by the Severn: this basin is formed by the highest mountains of England and Wales: the Severn rises at the foot of Plinlimmon and The Clyde. runs into the Bristol Channel. The basin of the Clyde in Scotland, is narrow, but worthy of notice for the beautiful falls of this river, one of which near Stone Byres is 84 feet perpendicular. The region watered by this stream is one of the most romantic, fertile, and populous in the whole country. The The Severn. Derwent Water. The lakes of Great Britain are small; the largest in England is Derwent Water, four miles long and one wide. Its beautiful banks are much frequented in summer. It embosoms several islands, and its waters are subject to violent agitations without any apparent cause. In Scotland are many lakes, the most noted of which is Loch Lomond, BOOK 30 miles long and two to three wide. CLII. Loch The geological features of Great Britain are highly interesting from the circumstance of its containing rocks of Lomond, every age. This has given a wide extension in England to Geology. the study of geology and metallurgy. Slate and coal are among the most important mineral productions of the island. Both in the north and south, mines of iron and lead are numerous: copper and tin occur in the S. W. The north contains copper, mercury, and precious stones; minerals abound in every quarter. The mines of Great Britain and Ireland are estimated at a value of 41,600,000 dollars. In Scotland micaceous schistus is the predominant rock. At the Orkneys, and the isle of Sky, red sandstone takes its place. From the frith of Clyde to Stonehaven, a belt of chlorite and quartz, divides the red sandstone from the micaceous schistus. Proceeding south, we meet with coal grit, red sandstone and graywacke at intervals.* In the other parts of Great Britain, different varieties of the sandstone and vast tracts of coal extend from the north to the banks of the Trent. In the west, argillaceous schistus occupies a large tract of territory upon the whole extent of coast, while vast beds of red marl and sandstone surround the deposits of coal in the S. and E. From the mouth of the Severn to that of the Humber, there stretches S. E. and N. W. a long strip of blue marl and lias: a parallel band of calcareous oolite, a deposit of encrinal limestone and another of blue marl extend toward the Channel followed by the friable and sandy beds of chalk marl, chalk, gypsum and other earths like those in the neighborhood of Paris. These deposits which continue to a distance from the shore are strong proofs of the former connexion of Great Britain with the continent. The narrow passage of the straits of Dover shows that the ocean can easily work its way through clay, sand and chalk. The rigors of winter, and the heats of summer, are much Climate. less felt in Great Britain than on the continent under the same parallel. The winds from the sea, temper seasons the * See Essai Geologique sur l'Ecosse, par M. A. Boué. |