2S6 HISTORY OF BRITISH FERNS. 



is traced, corresponding with the county boundaries, and 

 following that course which best divides the counties whoso 

 rivers flow to the east coast, from those whose waters flow 

 to the west. These two longitudinal divisions are subdi- 

 vided transversely into groups of counties, which together 

 constitute the basin of a principal river, or have some 

 other physical peculiarity in common. The medial line is 

 not continued northward of Inverness, where Scotland 

 becomes very narrow. A portion of Inverness, eastward 

 of Loch Erricht, is united with the contie-uous East Hio-h- 

 land province ; and the extreme north of Lancashire is 

 united with the Lake province. Ireland, which Mr. 

 Watson has omitted, is added to our list, and the Western 

 severed from the Northern Isles, to form a connecting link 

 with that country. This gives the following arrange- 

 ment : — 



1. Peninsula. — Cornwall, Devon, Somerset. 



2, Channel. — Hants, Sussex, Dorset, Wilts. 



8. Thames. — Herts, Middlesex, Kent, Surrey, Berks, 

 Oxford, Bucks, Essex. 



4. OusE. — Huntingdon, Bedford, Suflfolk, Norfolk, Cam- 

 bridge, Northampton. 



