16 CARDEN MANAGEME>T. 



34. At the commencement of the tertiary epoch of geology, there is every 

 reason to believe that the British islands were mei-ely a long straggling 

 archipelago of rocky pinnacles, rising out of the great deep ; and a geological 

 map of the period may readily be constructed by laying under water every part 

 of the countx-y which does not rise 800 feet above the level of the sea. Taking 

 the whole range of the country, it will be found that it is rugged and mountain- 

 ous on the west, north-west, and south-west ; extensive elevations, intermin- 

 gling -with valleys, dales, and intersected by rivers and plains much more ex- 

 tensive at the central, eastern, and south-eastern parts. 



35. Commencing at Cape Wrath, an uninterrupted range of granite moun- 

 tains, with groups of Siku'ian formation and sandstone groups, in some places 

 rising perpendicularly out of the sea to a great height, occupy the west coast, 

 culminating at Fort William, in Ben Nevis, where it is met by the mighty 

 Grampians, the principal range of which, commencing a little to the east of 

 Aberdeen, stretches across the country from east to west, culminating in Cairn- 

 gorm and Ben Muic-dhu, the loftiest mountain in the island. The spui's of 

 these two mountain-ranges occupy pretty nearly the whole angle formed 

 between Cape Wrath and the most easterly of the Grampians, while, on the 

 south, it extends as far as Ben Lomond on the west, and the Ochill Hills on the 

 east, A broad valley, formed by the Forth and Clyde, and other watercourses, 

 which even now nearly intersect the country, was still an ocean-bed ; but, to the 

 south, the Pentlands just raised their heads above the water, and formed, with 

 the Lammermoor Hills, Blackhope Scaurs, Lothian Head, and the Liddlesdale 

 and Cheviot range, a small archipelago by themselves. South of the T3-ne 

 rose what has been called the Pennine chain, which includes Crossfell, Wham- 

 side, and Holme Moss, terminating at the Weaver Hills, in StafiFordshii-e. This 

 long range occupies the centre of the country for about 170 miles ; while the 

 Cumbrian group forms a quadrangular range nearly united with it for a con- 

 siderable i^art of the distance, and may be considered the central range, — the 

 backbone, as it were, of the country, 



36. A little to the south of the Weaver Hills, and considerably to the west, 

 rising abruptly out of the sea, at Anglesea Bay, the British Alps, or Cambrian 

 mountain-system, including the loftiest mountains of South Britain, commences. 

 These extend their spui-s over the whole west coast between the Bristol 

 Channel and the island of Anglesea, and far into the interior of the country, 

 gradually losing themselves in the Wrekin, in the plains of Salop and the 

 table-land which extends between Nottingham, Birmingham, and Northamp- 

 ton. A few isolated groups of hills, as the Malvern Hills, the Cotswold 

 Hills, the Cleave Hills, Inkpen Beacon, and some of the loftier of the 

 South Downs, would just rise above the waters ; but the whole of the east 

 coast, to the foot of the hills named, now known as the eastern plains of 

 England, of an elevation less than 800 feet, would, at the commencement of 

 the tertian epoch, be under water, and in course of formation, as well as the 

 whole of the south and west coasts, except the high lands round Dartmoor 

 and the Cornish hills. 



