Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/792

Rh 746 Y O R Y O R Cure (with its tributary the Cousin), the Serein, the Ar- mangon (the valley of which is traversed by the Burgundy Canal and by the railway from Paris to Lyons through Burgundy), and the Vanne (from which Paris is partly sup plied by an aqueduct). To the west of the Yonne lie the sources of the Loing, another tributary of the Seine, and of its affluents, the Ouanne and the Lunain. The Yonne is navigable throughout the department, and is connected with the Loire by the Canal of Nivernais, which in turn is connected with that of Briare joining the Seine and the Loire. The climate of Yonne resembles that of Paris ; but the extremes of heat and cold are greater on the plateaus. The annual rainfall is 27 inches at Auxerre and 32 in the east of the department. The prevailing winds are from the south-west and west. Of a total area of 1,835,475 acres 1,125,412 acres are arable, 426,757 are under wood, 91,309 under vines, 79,366 under grass, and 39,316 are returned as occupied by heaths, pasture-lands, and marshes. The live stock in 1880 included 41,295 horses, 1280 mules, 8438 asses, 126,636 cattle, 238,522 sheep of native and 58,416 of superior breed (wool-clip in 1880 566 tons), 30,561 pigs, and 6516 goats. There were also 21,411 beehives (61 tons of honey). Oxen are fattened and the well-known St Florentin cheeses made. The wines of Tonnerre and Auxerrois are the finest red wines of Lower Burgundy, and those of Chablis are the finest white. The principal crops in 1884 were wine 22,486,420 gallons (average of ten preceding years 28,607,370 gallons), wheat 5,500,000 bushels, meslin 192,600, rye 680,625, barley 948,750, oats 4,677,750, buck wheat 35,200, potatoes 3,410,088, beetroot for fodder 25,060 tons, hops 79 tons, colza seed 206, hemp seed 138, hemp 99, linseed 40, flax 22, tobacco 33, hay 386,650, clover 34,245, lucerne 30,189, and sainfoin 6297 tons. The forests consist of oak, beech, elm, horn beam, ash, and birch, and re-plantations are being made with dif ferent kinds of pine and with larch ; chestnut trees are not un common. In 1880 700 tons of peat were extracted ; and there are fine quarries of Oolitic limestone, and of cement, ochre, fossil phosphates, china clay, and chalk. The chief industrial establish ments are tanneries, forges (11,863 tons of iron in 1882), paper- mills, saw-mills, and breweries ; files and other articles of steel, boots and shoes, hosiery, and champagne are also manufactured. Cereals, wines, firewood, charcoal, ochre, and bark are exported ; southern wines and building materials are among the imports. There are 286 miles of railway, 318 of national and 6755 of other roads, and 205 of waterway. The population was 357,029 in 1881, and 355,364 in 1886. About 217,000 are engaged in agricultural pursuits. The department constitutes the archiepiscopal diocese of Sens, has its court of appeal at Paris, its academy at Dijon, and belongs to the district of Orleans army corps. It is divided for administrative purposes into five arrondissements. Places of note are the chef-lieu Auxerre (16,754 inhabitants in 1886), the pictur esque Avallon (5768), Joigny (6189), famous for its wines, and Tonnerre (4650), for its wines and building stones. Plate YORK, a northern county of England, is bounded E. XVIII. by tj ie North Sea, N. by Durham (the boundary line being formed by the Tees), S. by Lincoln, Nottingham, Derby, and Chester, and W. by Lancaster and Westmorland. It is much the largest county in England, being more than double the size of Lincolnshire, which ranks next to it. The area is 3,882,851 acres, or nearly 6067 square miles, almost one-eighth of the surface of England. Of the total area 750,828 acres or about 1173 square miles are in the East Hiding, 1,361,664 acres or about 2127J square miles in the North Riding, and 1,768,380 acres or about 2763 square miles in the West Riding. The city of York, which forms an administrative division separate from the Ridings, embraces an area of 1979 acres or about 3 square miles. Geology. The marked differences in the geological structure of Yorkshire are reflected in the great variety of its scenery. The stratification is for the most part regular, but owing to a great line of dislocation nearly coincident with the Avestern boundary of the county the rocks dip towards the east, while the strike of the strata is from north to south. The bold and picturesque scenery of the western hills and dales is due to the effects of denudation among the harder rocks, which here come to the surface. A portion of the Pennine chain, stretching from Derbyshire to the Cheviots, runs north and south through Yorkshire, where it has an average breadth of about 30 miles. The strata here consist of (1) Silurian beds, occupying a small area in the north-west corner of the county; (2) the Carboniferous or Mountain Limestone, which has been subjected to great dislocations, the more important of which are known as the North and South Craven faults ; (3) the Yoredale series, consisting of shales, flagstones, limestone, and thin seams of coal ; and (4) the Millstone Grit, forming part of the hilly moorlands, and capping many of the loftier eminences. In the West Riding the Pennine range forms part of the elevated country of Craven and Dent, with Whernside (2384 feet), Ingleborough (2361), and Penyghent (2270). Towards the east it gradually declines into a series of moorland hills. Mickle Fell in the north-west corner of the county rises to a height of 2581 feet. The scenery in the western part of the North Riding is somewhat similar to that in Craven, except that the lower hills are of sharper outline owing to the perpendicular limestone scars. To the intermingling of the limestone with the softer rocks are due the numerous &quot;forces&quot; or waterfalls, which are one of the special features of the scenery of this district, the more remarkable being High Force in Teesdale and Aysgarth Force in Wensleydale. The action of water on the limestone rocks has given rise to extensive caverns, of which the best examples are those of Clapham and Ingle- ton in the West Riding, as well as to subterranean water courses. At Brimham, Plumpton, and elsewhere there are curious fantastic masses of rock due to irregular weathering of the Millstone Grit. The Pennine region is bounded on the south-east by the Coal Measures, forming the northern portion of the Derbyshire, Nottingham, and Yorkshire coalfield, which in Yorkshire extends from Sheffield north wards to Leeds. To the east the Measures dip beneath the Permian beds, of which a narrow band crops up from Masham southwards. The Permian strata are overlain to the east by the Trias or New Red Sandstone, which is scarcely ever exposed, but having been partly worn away is covered with Glacial deposits of clay and gravel, forming the low-lying Vale of York, extending from the Tees south to Tadcaster and east beyond York to Market Weighton. Farther east the Triassic beds are overlain by Lias and Oolite. The Lias crops to the surface in a curve extending from Redcar to the Humber. In the Middle Lias there is a seam of valuable iron ore, the source of the prosperity of the Cleveland region. The moorlands extending from Scarborough and Whitby are formed of Liassic strata topped with beds of Lower Oolite, rising gradually to the north-east and attaining at Burton Head a height of 1489 feet, the greatest elevation of the Oolite formation in Eng land. In the bottom bed there is a seam of ironstone, an immense nugget of which, in Rosedale, now nearly all removed, formed at one time a conspicuous cliff. In this district there are a number of picturesque eminences capped by Lower Oolites, and among the eastern slopes of the moorlands there are several charming and fertile valleys. Along the line of the Lower Oolites there is a series of low flat hills, which slope southwards under the clays of the Vale of Pickering. These clays are covered by the Chalk, forming the district of the Wolds, which again dips southwards below the clays and sands of Holderness. The coast is not deeply indented at any part, the inlets Coast, scarcely deserving the name of bays. Except in the Holderness region, the shore as far north as Saltburn is bold and rocky, and presents a great variety of picturesque cliff scenery, while below the cliffs there are in many cases long stretches of beautiful sands. Yorkshire is famed for the beauty of its river scenery, Rivers, in which respect it is scarcely surpassed by Scotland. The great majority of the rivers issue from the higher western regions and flow eastwards. The Tees, which rises on the