CUMANA CUMBERLAND MOUNTAINS. 



563 



country is fit only for the pasturage : other parts are 

 exceedingly fertile. In the interior is a range of 

 mountains, of wliich Tumeriqnisi, the most elevated, 

 is 5900 feet high. 



CUMANA, or NEW CORDOVA ; a town of 

 Colombia, and capital of a province of the same 

 name ; Ion. 64 10' W. ; lat. 10 28' N. ; popula- 

 tion, estimated by Humboldt at 18 or 19,000 ; by 

 Depons, at 24,000. It is situated near the mouth of 

 the gulf of Cariaco, about a mile from the sea, on an 

 arid, sandy plain. The climate is hot, earthquakes are 

 frequent, and the houses low and lightly built. On 

 the 14th Dec., 1797, more than three-fourths of 

 them were destroyed by an earthquake. The in- 

 habitants carry on a considerable trade in cocoa, 

 and other productions of the country. The road is 

 commodious for its depth, and of a semicircular form, 

 which defends it from the violence of the winds. 



CUMBERLAND; the extreme north-western 

 county of England. It is bounded on the north by 

 the Solway Firth, the Roman wall, and the river 

 Liddel ; on the west by the Irish sea ; on the 

 south by Westmoreland and Lancashire, and on the 

 east by Northumberland and Durham. Before this 

 island was conquered by the Romans, Cumberland 

 was probably occupied by the Caledonians; and 

 Richard of Cirencester states that it formed a part of 

 the territories of a British tribe called the Sistuntii. 

 Under the Roman government it belonged to the 

 province of Maxima Csesariensis ; and suosequently 

 it was included in the kingdom of Cumbria, which 

 seems to have been the hereditary domain of the 

 renowned king Arthur. The inhabitants maintained 

 their independence after the other parts of England 

 had been conquered by the Saxons ; but they -were 

 at length obliged to submit to the yoke, and the 

 county was made a part of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom 

 of Northumbria. At an early period the kings of 

 Scotland acquired some kind of feudal authority 

 over this county, which was the subject of fre- 

 quent disputes between the English and Scottish 

 sovereigns, but it ultimately remained in pos- 

 session of the former ; and it thus became exposed 

 to the perpetual inroads of the Scots, and was the 

 principal scene of border warfare, which had a con- 

 siderable effect on the character and manners of the 

 inhabitants. The union of the two kingdoms under 

 James I. removed the causes of national animosity, 

 and since that time those habits of rapine and 

 violence, for which the borderers were distinguished, 

 have been exclianged for more peaceful pursuits, 

 and commerce, literature, and the arts, flourish in 

 districts formerly desolated by continual warfare. 



There is great variety of surface in different parts 

 of the county. Two ranges of lofty mountains may 

 be traced, one towards the north, to which belongs 

 the ridge called Crossfell; and the other to the 

 south-west, of which the highest peak is Skiddaw, 

 3166 feet above the level of the sea. Between 

 these grand heights are many hills of various eleva- 

 tion, intersected by valleys, some of which are 

 fertilized by brooks and rivers. Among the most 

 important of the latter are the Eden, Eamont, 

 Duddon, Derwent, Greata, Cocker, Calder, Esk, 

 Liddel, and Irthing. There are also several lakes, 

 the largest of which are the Ullswater, Derwent- 

 water, Bassenthwaitewater, Overwater, Lowes- 

 water, Crummockwater, Buttermere, Ennerdale- 

 water, Wastwater, and Devockwater ; and there 

 are likewise some smaller pieces of water provin- 

 cially called tarns. The mountains of Cumberland 

 are rich in mineral products. Plumbago, or black- 

 lead, is almost exclusively procured from a mine in 

 this county; and it also furnishes abundance of 

 lead, coal and limestone, all which are largely 



exported ; with blue slate, chiefly used in the 

 county. The principal lead mines are on the 

 Derwentwater estate belonging to Greenwich 

 hospital. Here are copper mines, but they are 

 scarcely wrought at present. Iron, cobalt, anti- 

 mony, manganese, and gypsum, are also found here. 

 The mountainous regions, termed fells, are, in 

 general, externally rocky and barren; but the 

 lower eminences are covered with herbage furnishing 

 food for sheep, and the low grounds are well watered 

 and fruitful. Cranberries grow abundantly in some 

 parts of the county. Salmon is caught in the 

 rivers ; and that delicate fish, the char, is said to be 

 found nowhere but in the lakes of Cumberland and 

 Westmoreland. A small stream, called the lit, which 

 falls into the sea, a little to the north of Ravenglass, 

 it is said, affords muscles in which pearls have been 

 discovered. The climate, in general, is cold, but dry 

 and healthy. The scenery ot the loftier mountains is 

 bold, abrupt, and precipitous ; whilst that part of 

 the county which is included in the district of the 

 lakes, displays scenes, the picturesque beauties of 

 which have often been described both in poetry and 

 prose. Among the principal remains of antiquity in 

 this county are stone circles and other monuments, 

 supposed to be Druidical ; and the rampart called 

 the Picts' Wall, which extended from Solway Firth, 

 in the north-western part of Cumberland, to the 

 mouth of the Tyne in Northumberland, and which 

 was built by order of the Roman emperor Sevenis, 

 about A. D. 208. The five wards, or primary divi- 

 sions of the county, are Allerdale above Derwent, 

 Allerdale below Derwent, Cumberland ward, Esk- 

 dale, and Leath ward ; the only city is Carlisle, and 

 the only borough, Cockermouth : the sea ports are, 

 Whitehaven, Workington, Maryport, and Harring- 

 ton ; and the market towns are Penrith, Langtown, 

 Allanby, Ireby, Keswick, Egremont, Ravenglass, 

 Brampton, St Bees, Millom, Holm Cultram, and Kirk 

 Oswald. Cumberland, by the reform bill, returns four 

 members to parliament. Population in 1831, 169,681. 



CUMBERLAND ; a post-town, and capital of 

 Allegheny county, Maryland, on the Potomac, at 

 the junction of Will's creek, seventy miles W. 

 Hagerston, 130 E. S. E. Wheeling, 150 W. by N. 

 Baltimore. It is a considerable town, and contains 

 a court-house, a jail, a market-house, a bank, and four 

 houses of public worsliip one for Lutherans, one for 

 Roman Catholics, one for Methodists, and one built 

 jointly by the Presbyterians and Episcopalians. The 

 mountains in the vicinity abound in st^ne-coal, great 

 quantities of which are transported down the Poto- 

 mac, in flat and keel boats. The Cumberland or 

 Great Western road extends from this town to the 

 banks of the Ohio at Wheeling. It was made by the 

 government of the United States, at the expense of 

 .405,000 ; and a survey has been taken thence to 

 the Mississippi, 600 miles farther. 



CUMBERLAND ; a river which rises in the 

 Cumberland mountains, Virginia, and runs through 

 Kentucky and Tennessee into the Ohio, sixty miles 

 from the Mississippi. It is navigable for steam boats 

 to Nashville, near 200 miles, and for boats of 15 tons, 

 300 miles farther. At certain seasons, vessels of 

 400 tons may descend 400 miles, to the Ohio. 



CUMBERLAND MOUNTAINS, in Tennessee. 

 The range commences in the S. W. part of Pennsyl- 

 vania, and, in Virginia, it takes the name of Laurel 

 mountain, passes through the S.E. part of Kentucky, 

 and terminates in Tennessee, 80 miles S. E. Nash- 

 ville. A considerable portion of this mountain in 

 Tennessee is composed of stupendous piles of craggy 

 rocks. It is thinly covered with trees, and has 

 springs impregnated with alum. Lime-stone is found 

 on both sides of it. 



2N 2 



