ISLE OF MAN. GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 519 



with some interruption to skirt the shore till the mountain 

 land terminates in the alluvial tract already described. 

 The castle of Peel, more conspicuous for the extent 

 and variety of its outline, than for the magnitude and 

 style of its buildings, with the picturesque situation of 

 its harbour and town, and the life produced by its 

 shipping, forms an interesting object wherever it is 

 visible in following this line of coast. 



The general aspect of the interior of the island, is 

 consonant to that of the coast now described. The 

 northern alluvial tract is, throughout a great part, flat, 

 while it is also in a high state of cultivation. One 

 irregular range of low hills, formed of gravel, sand, and 

 other similar matters, extends in a curved line along 

 its northern and western edges ; and I need scarcely 

 add that, as it possesses but little wood, it offers no 

 beauty to the traveller's eye beyond that which arises 

 from the aspect of fertility, and from that of a scattered, 

 and apparently wealthy, rural population. This indeed 

 is a circumstance which will forcibly strike the English 

 observer, who is accustomed to see large tracts, even 

 when in high cultivation, occupied by a few opulent 

 tenants whose houses are scarcely visible in the agri- 

 cultural waste : it displays the remains of a system not 

 yet conformed to that which is now fast establishing itself 

 through the most improved parts of the British domi- 

 nions. The features, whether of the mountainous or of 

 the hilly tracts which form the elevated and southern 

 part of the island, are various ; but the two are in general 

 readily distinguishable by the presence or absence of 

 cultivation ; although that has been here extended as 

 far, perhaps in some instances further, than prudence 

 would have dictated, or profit will ultimately justify. From 

 the summit of Snaefell, which is the principal elevation of 

 the Isle of Man, a tolerably accurate idea may be 

 formed of the general distribution of the mountains, and 

 <3f the relations of the several parts of the group. This 



