42 RIVERS. 



CHAPTER III. 

 RIVERS OF YORKSHIRE. 



" I know no better way of describing this County than by following the 

 course of the Dan, Calder, Are, Wherfe, Nid and Ouse, which rise among 

 the mountains, are rivers of eminence, and run by considerable places." 

 Camden. 



THE area of Yorkshire is reckoned by Mr. Rickman, in the 

 Population Returns for 1831, at 5836 square miles. Of this the 

 larger portion, viz. about eighty parts in one hundred, delivers 

 its springs and surface water by innumerable feeders to the 

 Humber and German Ocean ; somewhat less than thirteen parts 

 in the hundred enter the same sea, but not through the Hum- 

 ber ; and rather more than seven parts in the hundred flow to 

 the Irish Channel. The particulars are contained in the sub- 

 joined statement, which I have constructed with some care from 

 the County Maps. 



Drainage of the Humber, estimated in square miles, each 

 including 640 acres : Swale, 543 ; Ure, above York, 725 ; ad- 

 ditions to Ure below York, but above Derwent, 175; Wharfe, 

 359 ; Derwent, 871 ; Aire and Calder together, 683 ; Dun, 

 with feeders on the south and west, 691 ; additions to Ouse 

 and Humber, below Derwent, 170; Hull, 286; Streams falling 

 into Humber below Hull, 170. Total, 4673 square miles. 



Drainage to the East Sea, but not through the Humber : 

 Tees, 347 ; Streams on east coast from Tees mouth to Filey, 131 ; 

 Esk, 162 ; Streams on Holderness Coast, 100. Total 740 square 

 miles. 



Drainage to the Irish Channel: Lime, 169; Ribble, 221; 

 Saddleworth, 33. Total, 423 square miles. 



In this enumeration the river which drains the largest surface 

 is the Derwent, but the quantity of water which it discharges in 

 ordinary states of the weather is comparatively small, because 



