ENTRODUCTLON. 
CHESHIRE iS a maritime county in the north-west of 
England, having an area of 1102 square miles. On 
the west it is bounded by the shallow waters of Liver- 
pool Bay and the estuaries of the Dee and Mersey. 
It is separated from Lancashire on the north by the 
river Mersey and its tributary the Tame; from York- 
shire in the north-east by the ridge of hills which 
forms the watershed of the Mersey and the Yorkshire 
Ouse; from Derbyshire and Staffordshire in the east 
by the rivers Etherow, Goyt, and Dane, tributaries of 
the Mersey; and from Flintshire and Denbighshire on 
the south-west by the Dee. The county is bounded 
on the south by Shropshire and Flintshire, but the 
border-line is not a natural one. 
The district thus defined varies greatly in character, 
whether judged by its physical features or by its fauna 
and flora, and is divided naturally into three areas 
—the CENTRAL Pain, the Hitt Country oF THE 
East, and the WIRRAL PENINSULA AND MARSHES OF 
THE DEE. 
THE CENTRAL PLAIN. 
Four-fifths of the total surface of the county is 
occupied by an extensive, slightly undulating, and very 
fertile plain, composed for the most part of glacial 
deposits resting upon rocks of new red sandstone. 
This Plain extends from the Mersey to the Dee, and 
A 
