FORESTRY 



CUMBERLAND cannot be considered one of the well-wooded 

 counties of England, as the aggregate of woods and plantations 

 according to the latest official returns for 1895 amounts only to 

 35,054 acres, out of a total area of 970,161 acres (of which 

 11,533 are water )- This indicates woodlands to the extent of about 

 3 -6 per cent, of the total area, which is considerably under the average 

 percentage for the whole of England (5-4 per cent.). No less than 

 261,158 acres consist of mountain and heath land used for rough 

 grazing. The only other county which contains more of such poor land 

 than Cumberland is the adjoining county of Northumberland (with 

 469,719 acres), and if the similar class of land in Westmorland 

 (208,426 acres) be added to these other two, the three mountainous 

 northern frontier counties contain no less than 939,303 acres out of the 

 gross total of 2,289,662 acres of mountain and heath lands in the whole 

 of England. 



The county is rich in the variety of its scenery and its surface, and 

 it shows great variations as to its climate. Towards the east and south- 

 west its surface is diversified by high rugged sterile mountains, fissured 

 with gullies abounding in waterfalls and fringed with woodlands, and 

 divided by deep and narrow fertile valleys, often with lakes ; the 

 northern and north-western districts are low and flat, or else gently 

 undulating ; while the central portion consists of elevated ridges, hills, 

 and fertile valleys. On the coast the climate is mild and temperate 

 though rather moist, but in the mountain region it is variable and wet, 

 especially during the summer months and the early autumn. The rainfall 

 varies from about 30 to 35 inches in the Carlisle and Wigton districts, 

 amounting to about 50 inches a year at Whitehaven on the west coast, 

 and even attaining the maximum for Europe of 244 inches measured at 

 the Styhead Pass (1,600 feet) in 1872. The mountain region comprises 

 more than one-third of the county and includes some of the highest 

 elevations in England. There are 10 peaks of over 2,500 feet in 

 height, four of which exceed 3,000 feet (Scaw-fell Pike, 3,210 ; Scaw- 

 fell, 3,162 ; Helvellyn, 3,1 1 8 ; and Skiddaw, 3,054). 



Throughout the greater part of the mountain region the soil 

 consists of a black peaty earth, often spongy and wet, which extends 

 into the moors and commons in the eastern part of the county. On 

 the lower hill-sides, there is often a cold, stiff, wet clay, which also 

 frequently forms the subsoil on the lowlands, consisting mostly of dry 

 loams well suited for farm crops, 

 ii 497 63 



