Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/735

Rh COUXTY.j the quality known as hematite ; and, being exceedingly rich and well adapted for the manufacture of Bessemer steel, it is largely exported to the Cleveland and other districts to mix with ore of an inferior quality. In 1871 thirty-three iron mines were registered for Cumberland in the Mining Record Office, employing 3771 miners ; but since that date many new mines have been opened, and all the mines have been worked on a more extensive scale than before. Furnaces for smelting the ore are established at Working- ton, Maryport, Seaton, Parton, and Harrington ; and at Workington are established large works for the manufac ture of iron and Bessemer steel. The famous black-lead mines are situated at the head of Borrowdale, in the south-west range of mountains. The mineral is found in the green slate, generally lying in nodules or irregular granular kidney-shaped masses. These masses are as a rule small ; but early in the present cen tury an extraordinary mass was found which, it is said, yielded 70,000 fb of pure plumbago. With the exception of a couple of trials made at an interval of twenty years by different companies, this &quot; wad-mine &quot; has been practi- cally closed for more than thirty years. The lead now used for pencils is an imitation of the plumbago, made chiefly from Mexican lead mixed with antimony and other ingredients. The principal lead-mines are at Alston Moor, on the south-east border of the county, in the Caldbeck fells, and in the mountains around Keswick. The ore is found in veins nearly perpendicular, and not unfrequently contains a con- Sjderable proportion of silver. Copper was formerly raised from the mines of Caldbeck, Hesket-New-Market, and Newlands near Keswick, but these mines have not been wrought for many years. The ore is a sulphuret, and usually contains both iron and arsenic. In 1871, 1082 persons were employed in lead-mining. The most considerable towns in Cumberland are Carlisle (population, 31,074), Ponrith (83 17), Whitehaven (13,298), Workington (7979), Maryport (6938), Wigton (3425), Cockermouth (5115), Keswick (2777), Brampton (2617), and Egremont (2377). The seaports are Whitehaven, Workington, Maryport, Harrington, and Silloth. White- haven was among the first ports in the kingdom to embark in the East India trade after it was thrown open, and possessed a fair share of the trade with America and the West Indies long before the Mersey and the Clyde ; the first Clyde ventures to the West Indies were made in Whitehaven bottoms. The lakes and mountains of Cumberland have long attracted the admirers of the wild and beautiful in natural scensry. The lakes, including the mountain tarns, are thirty-four in number ; of these Ullswater is the largest, and Derwentwater the most beautiful. Ullswater is partly situated in Cumberland, and partly in Westmoreland ; it is 9 miles in length and from mile to f mile in breadth. Winding round the base of vast rocky mountains in its upper part, it is only seen in the successive portions, the scenery on its margin presenting new and striking objects at every successive stretch. Derwentwater is of an irregular figure, approaching to an oval, about 3 miles in length and from ^ mile to 1| miles in breath. It is seen at one view, expanding within an amphitheatre of mountains, rocky but not vast, broken into many fantastic shapes, opening by narrow valleys the view of rocks which rise immediately beyond and which are again overlooked by others. Its shores are well wooded, and its bosom spotted by well- wooded islands, of which Lord s Island, Derwent Isle, and St Herbert s are the principal. Lord s Island was the residence of the ill-fated Derwentwater family, the last earl of which was beheaded for participation in the rebellion of 1715. St Herbert s Isle receives its 699 name from the fact of its having been the abode of a holy man of that name mentioned by Bede, as contemporary with St Cuthbert of Fame Island in the 7th century. Derwent Isle, about 6 acres in extent, contains a handsome summer residence surrounded by tastefully laid-out lawns, gardens, and timber of large growth. The celebrated Falls of Lodore, at the upper end of the lake, consist of a series of cascades which rush over an enormous pile of protruding crags from the height of nearly 200 feet. What is called the &quot; Floating Island &quot; appears occasionally at intervals of from two to five years, on the upper portion of the lake in front of the Lodore Falls. This somewhat singular phenomenon is supposed to owe its appearance to an accumulation of gas, formed by the decay of vegetable matter, detaching and raising to the surface the matted weeds which con stitute the floor of the lake at this point. The following table shows the extent of the lakes and their elevation above the sea-level, &c. : Length. Breadth. Elevation. Greatest Depth. Ullswnter Miles. 9 Miles. a Feet. 477 Feet 9 18 Bassenthwaite .. 4 226 78 Derwentwater 3 1 1 238 81 Crummock 3 s 321 132 Wastwater 3 1 204 Tlurlmere 3 533 108 EnnercLue , 2* 3 369 80 Buttenncre It 1 331 93 Loweswa tor. . 1 1 429 60 The present county of Cumberland was formed by the addition of a portion of the old English kingdom of York shire to the southern part of the old British kingdom of Strathclyde. It first became a portion of the kingdom of England in the reign of William Rufus, who rebuilt Carlisle which the Danes had destroyed 200 years before. At a conference held at York, Henry III., in full satisfaction of the claims of the Scots, who considered Strathclyde to be a tributary kingdom to Scotland, agreed to assign lands to them of the yearly value of 200 within the counties of Northumberland and Cumberland, if lands of that value could be found therein, without the limits of the towns where castles were erected. But after this arrangement there still remained a tract between the two kingdoms called the&quot; debateable ground,&quot; the resort of the worst characters of both, who continued to disturb the borders, down to the union of the two crowns. Of the ancient British antiquities of Cumberland the most re markable is a circle of stones, about three miles from Kirkoswald, called Long Meg and her Daughters ; and there is a unique little circle of 48 stones between Threlkeld and Keswick, called the Druid s Temple, scarcely two miles from the latter place the stones are porphyritic greenstone. The Roman wall may still be traced across the country from the Solway to Northumberland. A great many coins, altars, and other vestiges of antiquity have been discovered from time to time at the Roman stations on its line. la the mountainous parts the manners of the people were down to a recent period somewhat peculiar, and in some of the secluded dales the native inhabitants still lead a primi tive kind of existence ; but increased intercourse with the outside world, induced by the extension of railways and the spread of education, is doing much to bring them on a level with the peasantry of more favoured parts of the kingdom. Cumberland sends eight members to Parliament : two for the Eastern Division, two for the Western Division, two for Carlisle, one for Whitehaven, and one for Cocker- mouth. It is governed by a lord-lieutenant, high-sheriff, deputy lieutenant, and magistrates. (H. i. J.)