Page:The National Gazetteer - A Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands, Volume 3.djvu/211

Rh PERTHSHIRE. 199 PERTHSHIRE. Alpine grandeur one above another, with their bare and weather-worn summits almost hidden in the clouds. Among the loftieat peaks are Ben-Lawers near Loch Tay, rising 3,945, or, according to others, 4,015 feet above the sea-level ; Ben More, 3,819 ; Ben-y-Gloe, near Glen Tilt, 3,090 ; Schihallian, or Schichalleon, 3,564 ; Ben Uammore, 3,589 ; Ben Scarsoch, 3,390 ; Ben Ledi, between Lochs Katrine and Lubnaig, 2,863 or 3,009 ; Ben Venue, 3,000; also Glas Mhiel, Bruochcarravan, Ben Chualach, Ben Chonzie, and Duntchmore. The passes and other spots on the verge of the Highlands command fine views. The Ochill liUls traverse the south- eastern part of the county, separating the basins of the Forth and Tay, and attain an altitude of 2,359 feet at Ben Cleuch. The Sidlaw hills traverse the eastern part adjoin- ing Forfarshire and section of the rich district of the parse of Gowrie from the broad plain of Strathmore, attaining an altitude of 1,500 feet at Birnham Hill. The detached hill of Dunsinane, celebrated in Scottish story as the site of the castle of Macbeth, is a spur of this range, and has an altitude of 1,114 feet. A line through the passes of Aberfoyle, Leny, Comrie, and Killiecrankie divides the lowlands from the highlands. The Carse of Gowrie, between the Sidlaws and the Frith of Tay, differs from every other part of the county, excepting a portion of Strathearn and the district of Monteith, in being nearly a dead level, highly fructiferous, and everywhere abound- ing with orchards and wheat-fields. Old Red sandstone is the prevailing rock in the lowlands, and mica slate in the highlands, skirted by clay, chlorite, and horne- blende slates, which pass insensibly into mica slate, with occasional beds of quartz, sandstone, and greywacke, and some patches of granite, as at Rannoch Moor, which is 1,000 feet above sea-level ; and at Glentilt a highly elevated range of breccia, or puddingstone, may be traced in various places, separating the primitive district from the secondary district in tho S.E. of the county. A bed of limestone extends from Leny, near Callander, in a north-easterly direction towards Braemar, and coal measures underlie a large part of the Culross district, and extend from near Crieff in the direction of Dumbar- ton, coming up to the south-eastern skirts of the Ochills, on the File border. The Ochill Hills and the Sidlaws in the S.E. consist of a mixture of sedimentary and erupted rocks, the former chiefly porphyry and amyg- daloid, and the Sidlaws principally sandstone and green- stone. The hill of Kunioul, near Perth, is amygdaloid interspersed with nodules of agate and cornelian. The principal minerals worked are roofing slates, of various colours, at Birnam and in other parts of tho island, coal and fine clay at Fossaway and Tulliallan, ironstone at Culross, and in the coal regions W. of the Ochills, blue marble at Leny and Glentilt, sandstone at Longforgan, Auchtergaven, and Errol, and very good building-stone at Kingoodie, in the Carse of Gowrie, and at Longannat on the Forth. Limestone is burnt both for cement and manure, but both it and coal are scarce in parts of tho county from the difficulty of carriage. Copper ore occurs among the southern Ochills, and lead in Breadalbane, chiefly at Tyndrum, Benledi, and Glenlyon, also nodules of sulphate of barytes in the bed of the river Shaggy, in Strathern. Peat fuel is cut in tho bogs and mosses. The soils are extremely various, but may be described as till, sand, and gravel, with rich clay in the Carse of Gowrie, loam in the highland valleys, and in the upland extensive tracts of moor, bog, and moss, though these last are gradually diminishing. Only about one-third of the whole surface is under cultivation, the remainder being mountain, sheep pasture, moss, or irreclaimable waste. Some remains of the old forests are left in Brea- dnlbane and Monteith, but the greater part of the pre- sent woods have been planted since the middle of the last century. The late Duko of Atholo alone planted 27,000,000 trees, chiefly larch and spruce fir, with some oak, ash, elm, and birch. The most valuable tracts aio the Carso of Gowrie, which rivals in fertility tho lirhrst land in Scotland the lower part of Strathearn, the valley of the Tay above Perth, the district of Mon- teitii, and U.c valo of the Forth. All these tracts yield abundant crops of wheat, beans, turnips, and potatoes, of which last great quantities are yearly sent to London by railway. The carse of Gowrie is also very rich in orchards, but in the midland districts fruit is but rarely cultivated, and oats and barley are the principal grain crops. There is little cultivated land in the highland districts. Mosses of various extent, depth, and firmness, according to tho time they have been in formation, are scattered over tho plains or flats, and not unfrcquently cover the slopes of the higher hills. Many of these, formerly valueless tracts, including the famous Flanders moss in the vale of the Forth, have recently been the scene of grand georgical experiments, which have ren- dered the localities of Blair Drummond and Kincardine famous in tho history of agriculture. All the appliances of draining, special manuring, and improved rotation of crops, have been adopted with great success by the enterprising farmers and landowners of this part of Scot- land. The estates are in general entailed, and many large, but there are also numerous smaller proprietors, the total number on tho new valuation rolls of 1856 being 5,064, of whom 525 were returned as qualified to be commissioners of supply. The valued rental of the county according to the old Scotch valuation in 1674 was 339,192, and the real rental under tho new Valuation Act in 1856 was 680,611. Arable farms range from 50 to 500 acres, and in the lowlands, where great ad- vances have recently been made in agriculture, are uni- versally held on lease, commonly for 15 or 19 years, but some of the small highland occupiers are yearly tenants. The miserable farmhouses of a former period, without light or ventilation, have within the present century been almost universally superseded by substantial, slate- roofed houses of two stories, surrounded by improved farm buildings ; but this is not tho case in the high- lands, where mean hovels are frequently to be met with. Many farms on the mutual confines of the lowland and the uplands comprise small tracts of arable ground in connection with large tracts of hill pasture or moorland ; but the highland farms are mostly sheep farms for Tweeddale and Cheviot breeds with some Southdowna and Leicesters, recently introduced. There is no breed of cattle peculiar to the county, the West Highland breed being that most commonly fed on the highland pastures, but Ayrshire cows for the dairy have been successfully introduced into tho lowlands. The native animals include tho red deer, roe and fallow deer, fox, wild cat, badger, weasel, black cock, ptarmigan, par- tridge, blue hare, and tho eagle. Although Perthshire is generally considered a pastoral and agricultural county, more persons are returned as engaged in trade, commerce, and manufacture than in agriculture. The linen trade has long been established, and cotton-spin- ning and paper-making were introduced towards tho close of tho last century, the principal cotton-mills being at Deanston on the Teith, Stanley on tho Tay, and Cromwell Park on tho Almond ; but most of the paper- mills have been abandoned. There are also flax spin- ning-mills, fulling mills, linseed oil-mills, several small woollen manufactories for shawls, blankets, and other woollen fabrics ; extensive bleach-fields round Perth, and in Strathmore, besides a considerable number of weavers, employed by the Glasgow manufacturers, chiefly resident at Auchterarder, Crieff, and Dunblane ; also leather-dressers, miners, and colliers, besides other trades, chiefly confined to the town of Perth (which see). The principal commerce is carried on at Perth and Kin- cardine. The population is very unequally distributed, the Highland parishes, comprising two-thirds of its area, being veiy thinly peopled, while the Lowland parishes in the S.E. are comparatively densely populated. The population decreased in the decennial period between 1831 and 1841, from 142,166 to 137,457, owing chiefly to emigration, the incorporation of farms, and formation of deer forests, and has subsequently never recovered itself, having further declined from 138,660 in 1851, to 133,611 in 1861. The inhabited houses, also, in the last decennial period have declined from 22,628 to 22,056. Perthshire returns two members to parliament,