BOOK CLII. Wight. Anglesey. most opposite, but the variations of temperature are sudden and frequent. If the northern regions are favorable to the growth of vegetables, the state of the atmosphere is often an obstacle to their maturity: rains destroy the too early expectation of a plentiful crop. Moreover, in the north there are wide tracts of barren territory, and on the eastern coast, sand and marshes oppose an obstacle to fertility. The most fertile districts are in the centre and south. Our geological description leads us in continuation, to those islands nearest Great Britain. On the south we encounter the isle of Wight, called by the ancient Romans Vectis, and by the ancient Britons Guith. Its shape is an irregular square, and its surface contains 30 square leagues. The little stream of Medina divides it, from north to south, into two parts, and a chain of hills crosses it from east to west. Its geological construction is very singular: it is a body of parallel bands following the direction of the hills: on the south these begin with a bed of ferruginous sand, on which lie sandy glauconie, chalk, clay, marine deposits and fresh water. The soil is fertile, and produces seven times more corn than its inhabitants consume. The shores are rocky. Anglesey or Anglesea, near the western coast of Wales, is a larger island than Wight. It is 24 miles long and 17 broad. The ancient Britons called it Mona or Moneg: it was the residence of the supreme chief of the druids. The Romans, under the reign of Nero, conquered the island, although it was not entirely reduced to subjection until Agricola, incited by the resistance of the inhabitants, burnt the druids alive. Anglesey was successively ravaged by the Saxons and the Normans, and was finally reduced to obedience by the English under Edward I. On the side toward Great Britain it is covered with forests, the ancient sanctuaries of druidical superstition barrows and heaps of stones still remain to remind us of its bloody ceremonies. The interior of the island is naked, without trees or even hedges: it offers nothing to the view but an undulating surface, watered by nu * See Outlines of the Geology of England and Wales, by Messrs Conybeare and Phillips. merous springs, and covered with fertile fields. Corn is raised, and many cattle pastured in the island. A copper mine in the hill of Paris affords a source of considerable wealth: the metal occurs in a bed in some places 60 feet thick, the greatest mass of copper hitherto discovered: it is worked in the open air like a quarry. In this island are also mines of argentiferous lead, and rocks of beautiful green marble. The geologist will also notice granite, serpentine, and other transition and secondary deposits. BOOK CLII. North of Anglesey, opposite the Solway frith, is the Isle Man. of Man, 10 leagues in length and 5 in breadth. The summer in this island is without much heat, so that its scanty vegetation has a peculiar character. There are several hills of granitic rock, but most of the island is a coal formation. The mountainous island of Arran, where granite and rocks Arran. of an igneous formation are discoverable, seems to have been known to the ancients under the name of Brandinos. Six ponds which it contains, give rise to two small streams. The island is 7 leagues in length, and its shores abound in herring and salmon. All the islands along the Scotch coast, from the peninsula of Cantyre to Cape Wrath, are com-. prised within the name of the Western Islands or Hebrides: the ancients called them Ebudes. Those nearest the coast, Hebrides. Ila and Jura, are composed, for the most part, of micaceous and schistose rock: they contain a variety of metals, marshes, and heaths, and their atmosphere is moist and unhealthy. Mull, Rum and Sky are altogether volcanic; South Uist, North Uist, Lewis, and some others of less importance, which, with the foregoing, extend 48 leagues from north to south, appear to consist entirely of granite and mica. The chain formed by these is separated from Sky by a channel 6 leagues broad. The Hebrides, which amount in number to 300, are in general exposed to a cold air and unceasing fogs: 86 of them are inhabited and well cultivated: some are completely barren. Most of them have a variety of plants, but it is difficult to find upon any one of them a tree or even a bush. The Orkney islands, which the French still call by their Orkneys. ancient name of Orcades, are separated from the northern extremity of Scotland by the Pentland Straits or Frith, in BOOK Shetland. Ireland. which the sea is so boisterous that the surf upon the rocks spreads a fine rain to above a league's distance within the land: no wind, however strong, will enable the mariner to stem the current in this place. There are 30 of these islands, but not half are inhabited. Red sand-stone is the prevailing rock the stony soil wears a melancholy aspect, and there is little vegetation besides juniper, wild myrtle, heath, &c. Notwithstanding the rigour of the climate, there is little snow in winter, and it never lies long. Here may be remarked some of the phenomena attending the northern regions in June and July the twilight is sufficiently strong to enable the inhabitants to read at midnight: in December and January the sun is not above the horizon for more than four hours. In the Shetland or Zetland islands, these effects occur in a still higher degree; the longest day is 19 hours 15 minutes; the shortest 4 hours 45 minutes; the winter commences at the end of October and continues till April. During this season a perpetual rain is falling, storms beat against the shores, and the inhabitants are cut off from all communication with the rest of the world. The only spectacle which nature exhibits at this season is the aurora borealis, the brightness of which equals that of the full moon. The Shetland Islands are 86 in number, and 40 are inhabited. They contain granite and rocks of igneous origin, with red sandstone their vegetation is poorer than that of the Orkneys, and their soil for the most part is marshy. Ireland in the longest part is 105 leagues in length from north to south, and in the widest part 62 leagues in breadth. Its surface, which the numerous indentations of the coast render difficult to measure, contains about 3,800 square leagues. Situated under nearly the same parallel with England, it has a similar climate, although the air of Ireland is more humid. It lies west of Great Britain, between 51° 20′ and 55° 20′ north latitude, and between 7° 35′ and 12° 40' west longitude from Paris. Its chains of mountains are numerous. Nearly all run north and south from Bengore Head to Carnsore Point; but from this last the most considerable extend from east to west. They constitute the fourth group of the system of British mountains; none of BOOK them rise higher than 3160 feet. CLII. The most important of the rivers to which they give rise Rivers. is the Shannon, which rises in Allan Water, and passing through several lakes which increase its magnitude, falls into the Atlantic Ocean after a course of 50 leagues. The dampness of the air of this country is much increas- Lakes. ed by the number and extent of its lakes: the largest of these is Lough Earn, about 10 leagues in length, and 4 in breadth. Lough Neagh is equal in breadth, but only 7 leagues long; a peculiarity of this lake is that its waters deposit a calcareous sediment like that of certain mineral springs: these waters are esteemed medicinal in a variety of maladies. Corrib, a lake about as long as the last, has a mean width of about a league. But the most noted of these lakes for the romantic scenery around it, is that of Killarney; its banks are ornamented with the arbutus, whose creeping branches and dark coloured berries of an agreeable taste, are reflected from the waters of the lake. Ireland was once covered with forests, but is almost entirely bare at present: immense bogs, a characteristic feature of the country, have Bogs. taken their place: from the bottom of these bogs the inhabitants procure wood for fuel: it is in a state of complete preservation, and what induces a belief that these trunks of trees are the remains of ancient oak forests, is the fact that the waters seem to be saturated with tan. The skins of animals, and even of men who have been swallowed up in the bogs, have been found converted into a sort of leather. It is said that ornaments of gold and other antiquities have frequently been found in their depths. Ireland offers to the geologist rocks of every age, from Geologythe oldest to the newest. Some of the mountainous groups belong to the family of granites; micaceous rocks occupy all the southern part between Loughs Earn and Neagh: old limestone, which affords valuable marble, schistose slate, which excels that of Wales, sandstone, the whole coal formation, beds of gypsum, marly limestone, and other kinds, which afford excellent chalk, appear more or less distinctly; the whole coast parallel to Scotland, from the bay of Carrickfergus to Bengore Head is volcanic. Within these BOOK CLII. Metals. Animals of the British limits are contained the magnificent collection of basaltic pillars called the Giant's Causeway. Copper ore is found in various parts, and traces of mines of considerable antiquity have been discovered. Large masses of native gold have been found in the county of Wicklow argentiferous lead abounds in Antrim: cobalt, manganese, and zinc occur in several places, and some collieries are wrought: those of Castle Comer, in the county of Kilkenny produce annually 40,000 quintals. The most useful plants and animals have been imported Islands. from the continent at different periods into the British Islands. At the most ancient period, England was covered with virgin forests like the wilds of America: the food of the inhabitants consisted of acorns, apples, nuts and berries: bears, wolves, and wild boars ranged undisturbed among these vast solitudes: the deer fed in the woods and the wild bull in the plains. The beasts of prey have disappeared; the deer only is reserved to afford a sport to the rich, and no other of the wild quadrupeds remain but the small tribes which find a shelter in the mountains and forests. A goat is almost a rarity throughout the island, except in Wales, where they approach somewhat to a savage nature: the Welsh take great delight in hunting them; they prefer the he-goats as having the best fat and skin: the horns of this animal are sometimes three feet in length. Most of the domestic animals of Scotland are small, but their flesh is savoury and highly esteemed. Sheep pasture undisturbed upon the hills of the Orkneys, and, though exposed much to the inclemency of the weather, their wool is valuable. The Orkneys abound in all sorts of birds: eagles make such havoc in these islands, that, according to a law of the country, a person who kills one is entitled to receive a hen from every family of the parish in which the eagle is killed. The steep rocks of the little islands of Priestholm opposite the eastern point of Anglesey, are the resort of vast numbers of seafowl. The diver rears a brood of young in the rabbits' burrows: at the northern extremity of the island is one which derives its name from the numbers of seals or sea-calves in the neighbourhood. Shoals of herring frequent the Hebrides, the bays on the western |