GREAT BRITAIN 



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GREAT BRITAIN 



across the channel, from Britanny, or Britannia 

 Minor, in France. Politically it had no signifi- 

 cance until the accession in 1603 of James I, who 

 wanted some title to indicate his entire English 

 and Scottish realm. As officially used, the 

 name Great Britain includes England, Scotland 

 and Wales, but popularly the term has a wider 

 meaning, including Ireland as well, or even, by 

 a still greater extension, designating the entire 

 world-encircling British Empire. In this article, 

 geographical treatment will be confined to the 

 island itself, but in the discussion of govern- 

 ment the whole empire will be considered. To 

 gain a full and detailed knowledge of the 

 United Kingdom, with its people, its indus- 

 tries, and its geographic features, it is neces- 

 sary to read not only this article, but those on 

 ENGLAND, IRELAND, SCOTLAND and WALES, as 

 well. 



Size and Location. Among the islands of 

 the world Great Britain ranks sixth in size, the 

 largest island, New Guinea, if Australia be ex- 

 cluded, having an area three and one-half 

 times as large as Great Britain's 88,094 square 

 miles. Great Britain is thus nearly twice as 

 large as Pennsylvania, or about one-third as 

 large as the Canadian province of Alberta. Of 

 its area, England constitutes 50,867, Scotland 

 29,785, and Wales 7,442 square miles. Its 

 greatest length is almost 600 miles, or two- 

 thirds of the distance between New York and 

 Chicago; its greatest breadth is in the extreme 

 south, about 320 miles, while between the 

 Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde it nar- 

 rows to thirty-two miles. 



Great Britain lies in the northwest of Europe, 

 just north of France, and is separated from the 

 Continent by the North Sea, the Strait of 

 Dover and the English Channel. To the west, 

 and separated from it by North Channel, the 

 Irish Sea and Saint George's Channel, is an- 

 other large island, Ireland, which at all times 

 in its history has been closely associated with 

 Great Britain, while all about it are groups of 

 smaller islands, the Orkney, Shetland, Hebri- 

 des, Scilly and Channel Islands, and the Isles 

 of Wight, Man and Anglesey, which are under 

 its domination. 



Its shape and location have given to Great 

 Britain certain advantages which it has utilized 

 to the full First of all it has, by reason of its 

 broken shore line and many deep indentations, 

 a very long coast in proportion to its area 

 over 4,000 miles in all, or one mile to every 

 twenty square miles of area. The vast conti- 

 nent of Africa, with its eleven million square 



miles and more, has but a little over four times 

 as long a coast line. Because of this pecu- 

 liarity, Great Britain has no point which is 

 over seventy miles from the sea. Navigable 

 rivers, too, decidedly enhance this advantage. 



Then there is its location, in the temperate 

 zone, but far enough north so that its northern- 

 most points, where the summers are short, have 

 a compensating length of day seventeen hours 

 of daylight in some places. Moisture is plenti- 

 ful, too, because of the proximity of the warm 

 waters of the Atlantic, and not only agriculture, 

 but certain manufacturing industries as well. 

 profit from this. Close to the great countries 

 of Western Europe as it is, it has never lacked 

 for markets to which to send its products, while 

 the fact that it lies right between the great 

 land masses of the globe has had much to do 

 with its commercial importance. As noted in 

 the article on England, however, these advan- 

 tages would have gone for naught had the in- 

 habitants of the island not been the pro- 

 gressive, able people that they are (see sub- 

 heads The People in articles ENGLAND; SCOT- 

 LAND; WALES). 



Physical Characteristics. Though the details 

 of the surface features are given in the articles 

 on the separate political divisions, a brief sum- 

 mary of them as they concern the island as 

 a whole will be of interest here. 



As regards elevation, Great Britain has four 

 definite, well-marked regions. 



(1) The Highlands of Northern Scotland, a 

 rather barren, inhospitable mountain district, 

 which contains among Its ridges Ben Nevis, the 

 highest point In the Island, which reaches an alti- 

 tude of 4,406 feet. In this section have developed 

 those silent, rugged people who have preserved 

 for so long their own peculiar customs and dress 

 the Scotch Highlanders. 



(2) The Scottish Lowlands, south and east of 

 the mountain region an agricultural district with 

 rich soil and with mineral wealth which has made 

 possible thriving manufacturing Industries. The 

 Lowlands are much more thickly populated than 

 the Highlands. 



(3) The mountainous region which extends 

 from Southern Scotland across Northwestern 

 England and embraces practically all of Wale*. 

 One range of these mountains, the Cheviot Hlll. 

 forms a portion of the boundary between England 

 and Scotland. These mountains are not so high 

 as those of the Scottish highlands, nowhere at- 

 taining a greater height than 2.600 feet. 



(4) The lowlands of England, to the south and 

 east of the mountain district, the greatest agri- 

 cultural region of the Island. 



Mineral Wealth. This, with the various in- 

 dustries, is treated in the separate articles, but 



