VORB EERE: 
Its PHYSICAL ASPECT and VERTEBRATE FAUNA. 
ORKSHIRE, the largest county of the British Isles, con- 
taining an area of 3,936,242 statute acres, or 6150 square 
miles, and situate between 53° 18’ and 54° 40’ N. latitude and 
about 9’ E. and 2° 36’ W. longitude of the meridian of Greenwich, 
is also one of the most compact in form, the most varied in 
geological structure, soil, climate, and physical aspect. 
The lands of Yorkshire rise in masses from S.E. to N.W., in a 
direction which corresponds with that of the age of the underlying 
rocks, the oldest or palzeozoic formations constituting the high 
mountains of the north-west, whilst the newest or tertiary 
deposits of Holderness occupy the opposite or south-east angle. 
Thus a line drawn from the beach at Spurn to the highest summit 
of Yorkshire—Mickle Fell, 2596 feet—marks not only the general 
slope of the high lands but their succession in geological time, 
and is moreover the longest line (120 miles) that it is possible to 
draw within the county. . ; 
Broadly speaking the most salient features of its physical con- 
figuration are the great central depression and the flanking masses 
of hills to the east and west. 

The North-Western Fells is a wild and picturesque tract 
of mountainous country, ascending to 2596 feet at the extreme 
north-western angle of the county, and nowhere descending to a 
lower elevation than about four hundred feet. A district of lofty 
hills, thirty-six of which attain an altitude of two thousand feet or 
more, of extensive stretches of heathery moorlands, of grassy 
slopes and grey limestone scars, diversified by waterfalls, caves, 
