Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/693

 L I N L I N 609 by Horberg, the Swedish peasant artist. Other buildings of note are the massive old episcopal palace (1470-1500), afterwards a royal palace, and the old gymnasium founded by Gustavus Adolphus in 1627, which contains a valuable library (30,000 volumes) of old books and manuscripts, formerly kept in the cathedral The population, 3285 in 1810, was 8706 in 1878. Linkoping early became a place of mark, and was already a bishop s see in 1082. It was at a council held in the town in 1153 that the payment of Peter s pence was agreed to at the instigation of Nicholas Breakspeare, afterwards Adrian IV. The coronation of Birger Jarlsson Waldemar took place in the cathedral in 1251; and in the reign of Gustevus Yasa several important diets were held in the town. A large portion of it was burned down in 1700. L1XLITHGOW, or WEST LOTHIAN, a county of Scot land, stretching for 17 miles aloncr the south coast of the Firth of Forth, and bounded E. and S E. by Edin- burghshire or Midlothian, S.W. by Lanarkshire, and W. by Stirlingshire. It lies between 55 49 and 56 1 N&quot;. lat., and 3 18 and 3 3 51 W. long. According to the ordnance survey the area is 127 square miles, or 81,114 acres, a considerable increase on previous estimates. The longest straight line that can be drawn within the county is one of about 22 miles from north-east to south-west, but the average length does not exceed 16 miles, and the average breadth is about 7. To the east and west the boundaries are in the main natural, following in the one case the Almond and the Breich Water (except in the neighbourhood of Mid Calder, where Edinburgh encroaches on Linlithgow), and in the other the Avon and Drumtassie Burn. To the south they are more conventional, the line of the watershed between the Clyde and the Forth being disregarded, and a good deal assigned to Lanarkshire which physically belongs to the Lothians. The whole county lies in the basin of the Forth, and there is a general slope upwards from the shore of the firth to the hilly district in the south-west. The surface is diversified by hill and dale, and, with the exception of the upland moors on the borders of Lanarkshire, there is no extensive tract of level ground. A kind of irregular valley stretches across the county from east to west, affording the most convenient route for road, canal, and railway. Between this valley and the firth runs a line of crags and hills often beginning to rise immediately behind the shore ; the more prominent are Dalmeny, Dundas, the Binns, and Glowerow rem or Bonny- tounhill, the last a rounded eminence 559 feet above the sea, crowned by a conspicuous monument to General A. Hope, who fell in the Indian mutiny of 1858. To the south of the valley the ground rises pretty rapidly towards the west, more gradually towards the east. Between Bathgate and Linlithgow a general height is obtained of from 600 to 700 feet, the principal eminences being Knock (1017 foet), Cairnpaple or Cairnnaple (upwards of 1000), the Torphichen Hills, Bowden (749), and Cockleroy (942). Farther east come the Pdccarton Hills ; and the range may be said to terminate with Binny Craig, a striking crag-and-tail similar to those of Stirling and Edinburgh. To the south-east stands the isolated Dechmont Law (686 feet). There is no stream of any considerable size belonging exclusively to tho county. The Almond rises in Lanark shire, enters Linlithgowshire near Polkemmet, receives the White Burn and the Black Burn, and joining the Breich Water (also from Lanarkshire) passes Livingston, Mid Calder (Midlothian), and Kirkliston, and reaches the firth across the Drum Sands at Cramond. The Avon, which is already nearly a.s large as it ever becomes when it reaches the borders of the county below Muiravonside, passes Lmliffigovp bridge and Kinneil, and falls into the firth some distance be?w Inveravon. With the exception of Lochcot, the only lake in the county is Linlithgow Loch, a sheet of water covering 102 acres to the north of the town, well-known as a meeting place for curling and skating clubs. The eastern end is not more than 10 feet deep, but in the western portion there is one place about 50 feet deep. Eels are still caught in great numbers ; and the perch and the worthless roach, locally called the braise, are abundant. See LAKE, p. 220. &quot;The eastern portion of the county,&quot; says Mr II. M. Cadell, &quot; consists of Lower Carboniferous Sandstones, thin estua- rine limestones, and shales. The Carboniferous Limestone series, to which the strata in the western portion belong, is separated from the underlying Calciferous Sandstone series by the Carboniferous or Mountain Limestone, which dips westward and is well exposed along the outcrop in the disused lime-quarries of Hillhouse, Silvermine, and Bath- gate. The overlying rocks consist of sandstones, shales, and coal-seams, which are worked at Bathgate and Bo ness, above which come the three upper marine bands named respectively the Index, the Calmy or Janet Peat, and the Castlecary or Levenseat Limestone, the last of which is taken as the top of the Carboniferous Limestone series and the base of the Millstone Grit. The strata containing most of the workable coals at Bo ness have a thickness of about 150 fathoms, measuring from the Index Limestone to the lowest seam. The extensive sheets of contemporaneous volcanic rocks (basalts, dolerites, and tuffs) form a remarkable feature in the geology of the county. The high ground between Linlithgow and Bathgate is formed of an almost uninter rupted pile of these rocks about 2000 feet in thickness. They thin out towards the north and south, and on the shore of the firth they occur regularly interbedded with the seams of the Bo ness coal-field, which are usually in no degree injured by their presence. The tuffs or ash beds are well seen at Preston Burn., Carriden House, and St Magda len s near Linlithgow, while Binns Hill near Blackness is the remnant of an old volcano of Lower Carboniferous age. Trap dykes rise through the strata and run in an east and west direction, one of which can be traced for 4 miles between Parkly Craigs and the Avon.&quot; A few mineral springs, sulphurous and chalybeate, are known to exist in the county, but none of them are now of medical repute. In 1875 a salt spring was discovered in the volcanic rocks to the west of the town of Linlithgow, boring having been prosecuted to the depth of 451 feet in search of drinking water. (See Proc. Roy. Soc. Edin., 1875.) Coal-mining has been prosecuted in the county probably from the time of the Romans; and the earliest document extant in regard to coal pits in Scotland is a charter granted about the end of the 12th century to William Oldbridge of Carriden. In 1871 it was estimated by the Government commissioners that the Linlithgow coal-fields still contained 127,621,800 tons of coal accessible at depths not exceeding 4000 feet. About 1440 miners were employed in the twenty coal-mines in 1881, and the output for the year was 504,338 tons. At the same date there were six iron-mines in operation, with 926 miners and an output of 180,194 tons. The Kinneil Company, which is the largest in this department, employs about 700 persons. Fire-clay is worked in connexion with the coal; at Kinneil 60,000 bricks can be turned out per week. Since their value was made apparent by Mr Young about 1850, the shales have been the object of an extensive industry at Broxburn, L T phall, Dalmeny, and Hopetoun. The six mines in 1881 employed 691 miners, and the output was 353,826 tons. Limestone, freestone, and whinstone are all quarried within the county, and the Binny freestone has been used for the Royal Institution, the National Gallery, and many of the principal buildings of both Edinburgh and Glasgow. As a manufacturing district Linlithgow does not stand high, the chief estab-