Page:EB1911 - Volume 24.djvu/1096

 (closely allied to Leander) found in most tropical countries are also often used as food. In the West Indies Palaemon jamaicensis, and in the East Indies ''Pal. carcinus'' attain almost the dimensions of full-grown lobsters.

The name of shrimps is sometimes given to members of the order Schizopoda, which differ from most of the Macrura in having swimming branches or exopodites on the thoracic legs. In particular the Schizopods of the family Mysidae, which are abundant in the sea round our coasts, are often called “Opossum-shrimps” from the fact that the female is provided with a ventral pouch or “marsupium” in which the eggs and young are carried.

 SHRINE (Lat. scrinium, a case or chest for books, hence a casket; from scribere, to write, Fr. écrin, Ital. scrigno), the term given to the repository or chest to hold sacred relics. Sometimes shrines are merely small boxes, generally with raised tops like roofs; sometimes actual models of churches; sometimes large constructions like that at St Albans, that of Edward the Confessor at Westminster, of Ste Geneviève at Paris, &c. Many are covered with jewels in the richest way, such as the example at St Taurin, at Evreux in Normandy, and that of San Carlo Borromeo, at Milan, of beaten silver; the largest series are those which were enriched with enamels. Sometimes the term is given to the chapel in which the shrine is deposited.

 SHROPSHIRE, a western county of England on the Welsh border, bounded N. by Cheshire and a detached portion of Flint, E. by Staffordshire, S.E. by Worcestershire, S. by Herefordshire, S.W. by Radnorshire, W. by Montgomeryshire and N.W. by Denbighshire. The area is 1343 sq. m. The name of Salop, in common use, comes from an early name of the county town of Shrewsbury. Towards the west Shropshire partakes of the hilly scenery of Wales, from which several ranges are continued into it. South of the river Severn and partly in Montgomeryshire, the Breidden Hills rise abruptly in three peaks; and in the south-west there is a broad range of rough rounded hills known as Clun Forest, extending from Radnorshire. South and west of the Severn there are four other principal chains of hills extending from S.W. to N.E.—the Long Mynd (1674 ft.), west of Church Stretton; the Carodoc Hills, a little to the north, which are continued across the Severn and terminate in the isolated sugar loaf hill of the Wrekin (1335 ft.); Wenlock Edge, east of Church Stretton, a sharp ridge extending for 20 m., and at some points rising above 1000 ft.; and the Clee Hills near the south-eastern border (Brown Clee, 1805 ft.; Titterstone Clee, 1749 ft.). The remainder of the county is for the most part pleasantly undulating and well cultivated. It lies almost entirely in the basin of the Severn, which enters from Montgomeryshire and flows eastward to Shrewsbury, after which it turns south-eastward to Ironbridge, and then continues in a more southerly direction past Bridgnorth, entering Worcester near Bewdley. The scenery on its banks is striking at some places, as near the finely situated town of Bridgnorth, but it is spoilt in one of the most beautiful stretches, that near Coalbrookdale, by the great factories in the neighbourhood. Its principal tributaries within Shropshire are: from the right the Rea, the Cound and the Borle; from the left the Vyrnwy, a well-known trout-stream forming part of the boundary with Montgomeryshire, the Perry, the Tern, which receives the Roden, and the Worf. The Dee and its tributary the Ceiriog touch the north-western boundary of the county with Denbighshire. In the south the Teme, which receives the Clun, the Onny and the Corve, flows near the borders of Herefordshire, which it occasionally touches and intersects. Salmon are taken in the Severn, and the Teme with its tributaries are frequented for trout and grayling fishing. There is a cluster of picturesque meres or small lakes in the north-west near the borders of Denbighshire, of which the largest is Ellesmere, and there are a number of others in various parts of the county.

Geology.—The Pre-Cambrian rocks of Shropshire include the granitoid and gneissic rocks of the Ercall and Primrose Hill (Wrekin), the schists of Rushton, the lavas and ashes of the Wrekin, Caer Caradoc and Pontesford, and the purple slates, grits and conglomerates of the Longmynd. The Wrekin Quartzite, Comley Sandstone and Shineton Shales are the local representatives of the Cambrian system. These are followed by the Ordovician formations which occupy three areas: the Breidden Hills, the Shelve district and the Caer Caradoc district, and include strata referable to the Arenig, Llandeilo and Bala series; the rocks are fossiliferous shales, grits and volcanic ashes, with dolerite intrusions. The Silurian rocks which follow unconformable are represented in the Long Mountain and Clun Forest regions by sandstones and shales, and along Wenlock Edge by highly fossiliferous mud stones and limestones; they include the Llandovery, Wenlock and Ludlow series, and the limestones are famed for their rich marine fauna. The Old Red Sandstone, a great series of red marls, sandstones and thin impure limestones (cornstones), conformably succeeds the Silurian rocks, and occupies the south-eastern area (whence it extends into Herefordshire); it also makes extensive out-liers at Clun and Bettws-y-Crwyn; the rocks have yielded fish and crustacea. The highest beds are conglomeratic and are seen only round the Titterstone Clee Hill. The Carboniferous Limestone and Millstone Grit of the Denbighshire coalfield enter the county near Oswestry; they appear also at Lilleshall and Coalbrookdale on the western border of the Coalbrookdale coalfield, and underlie the little coalfield of the Titterstone Clee Hill. The Coal Measures with their coal-seams and bands of ironstone are present at Oswestry (extending south from Denbighshire) and form also the coalfields of Shrewsbury, Leebotwood, Coalbrookdale, Wyre Forest and the Clee Hills. In the last two districts basalt (dhustone) has been intruded into the Measures, and at Clee Hill is extensively quarried for road stone and paving cubes. The so-called Permian rocks (red sandstones and marls) are now grouped with the Coal Measures. The succeeding Triassic rocks—red sandstones, marls and conglomerates (Bunter and Keuper)—occupy the north-eastern part of the county, and are capped near Market Drayton by Rhaetic and Lias. Glacial deposits—boulder-clay, gravel and sand, often shell-bearing—overspread much of the Triassic plain in the north and east of the county; they were laid down by ice-sheets which moved in from the Irish Sea and from the Aran and Arenig mountains in Merioneth. Some peat-bogs in the drift-covered regions appear to occupy the sites of lakes. Coal and ironstone, silver-lead and zinc from the Ordovician rocks of Shelve, with limestone, building-stone and roadstone, are the chief mineral products.

Industries.—More than four-fifths of the total area is under cultivation. The principal grain crops are barley and oats, the acreage under each of which is nearly double that under wheat. Some five-eighths of the total acreage cultivated is in permanent pasture, and there are besides considerable tracts of hill pasture. Turnips and swedes form the bulk of the green crops, as cattle are largely kept for the dairy. The cattle are chiefly Herefords and the sheep Shropshires. Cheshire cheese is made in the northern districts. A small acreage is under hops.

Apart from agriculture there are several important branches of industry. Coalbrookdale and the neighbourhood is the principal coal-mining centre, and was an early home of the iron founding trade, under the famous family of Darby, and this industry is prosecuted here and at Ironbridge, Shifnal and elsewhere. There are also considerable manufactures of machinery, tools and agricultural implements, as at Ludlow, Oswestry, Shrewsbury and Wellington. There are great encaustic tile and brick works in the Broseley district, where also is an old-established manufacture of tobacco pipes; while at Coalport there are china works. Some woollen goods are made. In the Minsterley and Stiperstones district in the west, lead and barytes are obtained.

Communications.—The railways, for which Shrewsbury is the most important centre, belong mainly to the Great Western and London & North-Western companies. Of the first the main route to the north-west runs from Wolverhampton by Wellington, Shrewsbury and Gobowen to Chester, with a branch from Wellington to Crewe. Another line comes from Worcester and Bewdley, following the Severn valley by Bridgnorth and Ironbridge to Shrewsbury, with several branches through the Coalbrookdale and Wenlock districts. The two companies jointly work the line from Stafford by Newport, Wellington and Shrewsbury to Welshpool, and the Crewe-Hereford line by Whitchurch, Shrewsbury and Craven Arms. From Craven Arms a branch of the North-Western system runs into South Wales and the short Bishops Castle railway serves that town. The Cambrian line starts from Whitchurch and runs by Oswestry into Wales. The chief canals are the Shropshire Union, Shrewsbury and Ellesmere in the northern part of the county. The Severn is to some extent used for navigation up to Shrewsbury.

Population and Administration.—The area of the ancient county is 859,516 acres, with a population in 1891 of 236,339, and in 1901 of 239,324. The area of the administrative county is 861,802 acres. The county contains 14 hundreds. The municipal boroughs are—Bishops Castle (pop. 1378), Bridgnorth (6052), Ludlow (4552), Oswestry (9579), Shrewsbury (28,395), Wenlock (15,866). The urban districts are Church Stretton (816), Dawley (7522), Ellesmere (1954), Newport (3241), Oakengates (10,906), a mining town, Wellington (6283), Wem (2149),