THE 



RIVERS, MOUNTAINS, AND SEA COAST 



OF 



YORKSHIRE. 



CHAPTER I. 

 PRINCIPAL FEATURES OF PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



1 ORKSHIRE, once the home of the most powerful British 

 Tribe, and now the largest of English Counties, is marked by 

 Nature with boundaries befitting such distinction : the sea on 

 the east, rivers on the north and south, mountains on the west. 

 In this latter quarter, the area of the County does indeed stretch 

 beyond the summit of drainage, to embrace portions of the 

 Dale of Ribble, and the short glens of Garsdale and Dentdale, 

 whose waters flow to the Irish Channel; but, with these ex- 

 ceptions, all the streams which gather in the valleys of Yorkshire 

 find their way to the eastern sea at points which do not pass 

 beyond the limits of its territory. 



The rivers of Yorkshire are emphatically its own : born among 

 its mountains, they give life and beauty to its numerous dales, 

 and transport the fruits of its busy population to estuaries worthy 

 of such tributaries. The greatest of these, the Humber, admits a 

 vast body of sea-water to meet the abundant contributions of the 

 rivers Dun, Calder, Aire, Wharfe, Nid, Ure, Swale, Derwent, 

 and Hull. Tees and Esk have their own outfalls to the sea*. 



* In Yorkshire we commonly speak of our rivers and mountains, as Tees, 

 Swale, Ingleborough, Penyghent, &c. 



