SCOTLAND. 



; ' 



SCOTLAND occupies the northern, the smaller, 

 and less fertile portion of the island of Great 

 Britain. It lies between lat. 5438' and 58 40' north, 

 and between long. 1 46' and 6 14' west, or, includ- 

 ing the Hebrides, 8 35' west. It is bounded on 

 the west and north by the Atlantic ; on the east by 

 the German Ocean; and on the south by England, 

 the Solway Firth, and part of the Irish Sea. Its 

 coast-line presents the most fantastic irregularities: 

 here jutting into the ocean in high narrow penin- 

 sulas, there receding far inland, in lake-like gulfs, 

 and again suddenly starting seaward, and breaking 

 into a number of bold rocky headlands. Its 

 eatest length, from the Mull of Galloway on the 

 >uth to Dunnet Head on the north, is about 280 

 iles ; its breadth is variable, being about 146 

 lies between Buchan Ness, in Aberdeenshire, 

 and the extreme point of Ross-shire on the west, 

 but diminishing to little more than 30 miles 

 between the Firths of Forth and Clyde. The 

 entire surface, including the islands, is estimated 

 at 30,902 square miles. By the census of 1871, 

 the population of Scotland was 3,360,018 ; in 1881, 

 it was 3,735,573i shewing an increase of 11-18 per 

 nt., the highest rate of increase since 1831. 



SUPERFICIAL FEATURES. 



Superficially, the country may be described as 

 mountainous and rugged its central and southern 

 districts, however, exhibit less of this character ; 

 hence the common distinction of Highlands and 

 Lowlands. A line drawn from Aberdeen to 

 Glasgow may be regarded as the boundary between 

 the two regions the former a country full of 

 romantic scenery, savage precipitous mountains, 

 lakes, dreary moorlands, rushing streams, deep 

 glens, and wild hanging woods ; the latter being 

 less elevated and irregular, but still presenting 

 several considerable mountain-ranges. A more 

 correct division, perhaps, would be into northern, 

 central, and southern regions. The boundaries 

 between these regions are formed by two great 

 natural depressions. The first runs from the 

 Sound of Mull, on the west coast, in a north-east 

 direction to the Moray Firth at Fort George, and 

 is called Glenmore or the Great Glen. It forms 

 the line of the Caledonian Canal (see page 250). 

 The other depression runs across the island be- 

 tween the Firths of Forth and Clyde. The region 

 lying north and west of Glenmore may be con- 

 sidered as a high table-land, at a general elevation 

 of 500 to 1500 feet, with a number of rocks and 

 summits rising from it, the highest of which are 

 Ben More Assynt (3273), Ben Wyvis (3429), and 

 Ben Attow (3383 feet). This division of Scotland 

 is little but a wild, barren, rocky desert. The level 

 portions, which are less than one-twentieth of the 

 whole, lie chiefly around the Cromarty Firth, 

 on the east coast, and in the county of Caith- 

 ness, the greater part of which is an undulating 

 plain. 



The central region, comprised between the two 

 68 



depressions, is traversed by the chain of the 

 Grampian Mountains, which begins on the east 

 coast immediately south of the river Dee at 

 Aberdeen, and runs to the south extremity of 

 Glenmore, on the west coast. The highest sum- 

 mits are Ben Nevis (4406), at the west end of the 

 range, and Ben Muicdhui (4296), near the sources 

 of the Dee. The third or southern division of 

 Scotland also contains a system of mountains or 

 highlands, but of a different character from the 

 northern highlands, the hills being mostly of a 

 rounded form, and in great part covered with green 

 vegetation. The most elevated part of this region 

 is that which forms the water-shed between the 

 waters of the Clyde and Tweed on one side, and 

 those that fall into the Solway Firth on the other. 

 The Lowthers, near the sources of the Clyde, rise 

 in two summits to 2377 and 2403 feet. Broad Law, 

 in Upper Tweeddale, is 2723 feet. This elevation 

 is continued eastward in the Cheviot Hills, 

 dividing England and Scotland. Another eastern 

 prolongation of this southern highlands is the 

 Lammermuirs, which terminate in St Abb's 

 Head. 



There are no great plains in Scotland. There 

 are, however, a number of considerable valleys, 

 known as carses, straths, haughs, and dales, 

 intermediate between the mountain-ranges ; and 

 these form, as it were, the granaries of the 

 country. 



GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE. 



The following sketch embraces England as well 

 as Scotland, it being more convenient, in regard 

 to geological structure, to treat the island as a 

 whole. The geology of Great Britain is of peculiar 

 importance. The rocks of the earth's crust having 

 been first systematically studied and expounded 

 here, British geologists have given to the world 

 the names whereby the various strata are known, 

 and British rocks form the typical series of the 

 earfti's strata. The whole recognised series of 

 stratified deposits occur in Britain, one or two 

 only being more fully developed elsewhere. In 

 the following sketch of their distribution, we shall 

 begin with the lowest and eldest. The base rocks 

 occur in the Outer Hebrides, in Tiree and Coll, 

 and along the western shores of Sutherland and 

 Ross. The predominant rock is crystalline gneiss. 

 Resting on the convoluted edges of this old gneiss, 

 on the mainland, and forming the basement rocks 

 in Cumberland, Anglesea, and North Wales, we 

 have the Cambrian series of deposits. In Scot- 

 land, these rocks are brownish-red sandstones and 

 conglomerates ; in England and Wales, they are 

 composed of sandstones, gritstones, and slates. 

 They contain very few fossils. The Silurian 

 measures occupy a large portion of the country, 

 extending over the greater part of Wales, tha 

 north of Lancashire, Westmoreland, most of the 

 Lowlands of Scotland, and almost all the High- 

 lands north and west of a line drawn between 



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