Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 09.djvu/189

* GREAT BRITAIN. 163 GREAT BRITAIN. Channel, and Irish Sea. As moif than four-fifths of the huul .surfnoe of the earth is north of the equator, and as (ireat Britain is ahout half-way between the extreme east of Asia and the e.xtrenie west of America, it oeeupies the central position in the land hemisphere, which is a eonmiercial advantasre. In its far northern situation the light of the sun is continued for as man}' as seventeen hours a day in the summer, or growing season, which is an agricultural advantage. Its position near the European mainland gives it easy and cheap access to great foreign markets. TopoGR.PiiY. The seas surrounding Great Britain are very shallow, rarely exceeding 300 feet in depth. The fact that the island stands on the Continental shelf luis two great advantages: ( 1 ) It is protected from the cold waters of the deep Arctic currents, and thus is spared the chill- ing influences of the Northern Ocean. (2) The shallow surrounding waters are fitted in tempera- ture and in ahundant supplies of fish food to sup- port myriads of the best varieties of fish, so that . the fisheries constitute one of the great indus- tries, the enormous population finding in them the only home source of food whose product is in adequate su]iply. The coasts are extremely long in proportion to the area of the land. Europe, with a much longer coast-line in proportion to area than any other continent, has one mile of coast to every 200 miles of area ; but Great Britain has one mile of coast to less than 20 miles of area, the shore-line, particularly on the west side, being broken up into a series of bold headlands and deep bays penetrating far into the land, so that England has a coast-line nearly 2000 miles in length, while that of Scotland is considerably longer. No part of the island is more than 70 miles from the coast. The broken character of the coasts is determined, of course, by the nature of the rocks. The headlands are formed of the harder rocks which are worn away very slowly by the sea waves and other agencies of coastal destruction. The numerous indentations and deep bays are found where the softer rocks have been worn away iiy the action of water and other disintegrating agencies. Two causes have con- tributed to increase the value of these indenta- tions as harbors. One is the subsidence or depression of the entire western side of the island, so that the sea has been able more deeply to invade the valleys (drowned valleys) : the other is the rise of the tides all around the coasts, from 6 to 30 feet (the latter height at Bristol), which converts the mouths and lower parts of many rivers into deep bays or channels. Without the tide. London could never have become a great sea]iort. The deep-sea lochs of the west coasts of Scotland are similar in appearance and origin to the fiords of Norway. Here, as on the western coast of England, all the softer rocks have been washed away; and on the Scottish coast there is left an outer barrier of islands and an inner wall of very hard rocks penetrated by these deep fiords. On the other hand, the east coast of Scotland, composed mainly of sandstone and clay, has been easily worn into deep estuaries at the mouths of rapid rivers like the Tay; and the east side of England, composed of soft rocks, has been worn into a low, monoto- nous line of shore, broken only by the estuaries of rivers whose current is too sluggish to wear away deep channels. Most of the good harbors are, therefore, along the west and south shores of the island. The south coast is picturesque, with lofty clilfs and rocky shores dotted with summer resorts. The highh'.nils and lowlands of (Jreat Britain may roughly be dividcil into fcnir wcll-delined areas: (1) The Scottish Higlilands, a mountain- ous and comparatively barren region, lie nortli- west of a line drawn from Dumbarton to Aber- deen. (2) The Scottish Lowlands, an expanse of fertile lowland and the Southern Uplands, lie southeast of this line. (3) The mountains of England and Wales lie northwest of a line drawn from Exeter to Berwick. (4) The lowlands of England lie to the southeast of this line. There are in the Scottish Highlands a number of parallel ranges of moiuitains. the highest mountain ueing Ben Nevis, 440C feet, the cul- minating point of the island. The only pas- sageways are at their extremities. At these ex- tremities are the two roadwaj's through Scot- land from south to north, the eastern coast forming the easiest and most traveled route, its- importance being increased by the fertile plains which the eastward draining streams have multi- plied in Scotland on the borders of the North Sea. These plains have a large population. Plains are lacking on the Atlantic seaboard where the mountains descend to the sea. The crystalline rocks of the Highlands yield only a meagre soil, and the difficulties of production are increased by the high northern latitude, giving a raw climate and the excessive precipitation which results in very numerous peat-bogs and tarns that con- siderably diminish the available surface. On the other hand, the abundant alluvium of the eastern plains makes a fertile soil, and wheat is grown as far north as Moray Firth in latitude .58°. The seaboard, however, is the main source of pros- perity, facing, as it does, Europe, sheltered from the west winds, and supplied with a group of fine ports. Trade and the fisheries absorb the energies of the larger part of the population of this section. The Scottish Lowlands, which connect the Highlands with the Southern Uplands, are a plain, diversified by many hills of hard igneous rocks, covered with fertile soil, and abounding with natural advantages that have concentrated in them most of the population of Scotland. Agriculture is richly developed : the coasting trade, oceanic commerce, and the fisheries, both local and pelagic, are of fir.st-class importance: and the great coal and iron fields of the southwest have developed enormous industries which, start- ing in the region around Glasgow, have spread eastward even to the Edinburgh district, making- the Lowlands the most important manufacturing district in Great Britain outside of Yorkshire. The Southern Uplands, among which the Clyde rises, are a plateau where the heights are massed into difi'erent groups by the rivers that have excavated the valleys. From the middle of England a broad peninsula (Wales) pushes out toward Ireland. The whole of Wales and the part of England lying to the northwest of the line from Exeter to Berwick are a highland. This hilly and mountainous region is composed of very old sedimentary rocks with masses of crystalline rocks at various centres. Thus the mountains have been partly weathered from the plateau surface into their present forms or were pushed up from below by terrestrial con-