524 ISLE OF MAN. ALLUVIA. 



From this disposition of the land, the rivers of the Isle 

 of Man are, as might be expected, rather numerous than 

 extensive in their courses. Every small valley produces 

 some stream, discharging itself into the sea or increasing 

 the strength of some neighbouring river. Many of them 

 are consequently too small to require notice, although, 

 from the prevailing moisture of the climate, they are 

 rarely dried up. The altitude of the mountain land is 

 sufficient to intercept the track of the clouds during 

 the greater part of the year ; while its western position 

 and insular situation ensure an almost constant supply 

 of rain. The principal river of the island rises by nume- 

 rous branches from the declivities which surround Snae- 

 fell, and passing in a tortuous course by Sulby, is dis- 

 charged into the sea at Ramsey. The Bright river, which 

 joins the Black water to form the inlet at Douglas, the 

 rivers of Castletown, of Peel, of Laxey, and the Santon,* 

 which marks the boundary of the limestone district pu 

 the eastern side, are the next most remarkable streams; 

 but like the smaller, which it is unnecessary indeed even 

 to enumerate, they require no particular description. 



There is no reason to imagine that the form of the land 

 has been any where materially modified by these rivers. 

 If there is any one, the corrosive action of which might 

 be suspected, from the depth and perpendicularity of the 

 rocks which bound it near the termination, it is the Santon. 

 But even this ravine may with equal facility have been de- 

 termined by the position of the schist, in the same way as 

 the irregular and undulating surface of the land has been. 

 The rivers of this island have little power, and do not 

 appear to have been concerned in effecting the present 

 irregularities, which are more easily referred to the same 

 distant but unknown operations by which the mountains 

 themselves assumed their existing disposition. In a few 

 instances, and perhaps most remarkably at Laxey, from 



* A corruption of St. Ann. 



