THE TOPOGRAPHY. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE TOPOGRAPHY. 



FiFESHiRE forms the eastern portion of the great central coal 

 district of Scotland. Its form is peninsular, being enclosed 

 on three sides by sea — the German Ocean on the east, the 

 firths of Forth and Tay on the south and north, and on the 

 west it is bounded by the shires of Perth, Kinross, and Clack- 

 mannan. The greatest length from east to west, along the rocky 

 shores of the Forth, is forty-one miles ; about the centre-line 

 from St. Andrews to Lochleven, it is twenty-three miles ; on 

 the northern boundary from Ferry-Port-on-Craig to Mugdrum, 

 near the confluence of the river Earn with the Tay, it is eighteen 

 miles. The breadth across the centre, in the hne of Dura Den, 

 is fourteen miles. 



Within this area there are included about 467 square miles 

 of land, and about six square miles of lakes. The number of 

 cultivated acres imperial is nearly 260,000 ; of uncultivated, in 

 woods and hill-pastures, about 70,000 ; and of under-ground 

 coal measures there is an area of nearly 16,000 square acres. 

 The county lies between 56° 2' and 56'' 27' n. lat., and between 

 2° 20' and 3° 12' w. long. 



The general contour of Fifeshire partakes more of the gentle 

 and undulating outline of the downs of England than of the 

 bolder and more striking features which characterize the moun- 

 tain land of Caledonia. The Ochils, traversing its northern 

 boundary, and the Lomonds, running through tlie centre division, 

 separate the county into three well-defined subordinate districts, 



