feet. IV. THE COUNTY OF FIFE. 23 



(?ount, however, is only general, and, though 

 just, has nothing in it peculiar and distinguish- 

 ing ; as it may apply to almost any county as 

 well as Fife, and, perhaps, to almost any parish in 

 Fife as properly as to the whole. A more par- 

 ticular description will therefore be necessary. 



When the county is carefully surveyed, and 

 examined with a view to ascertain this point, 

 we find it dividing itself into four tracts or dis- 

 tricts of ground, clearly marked, and distinguish- 

 ed from each other, by a general difference of 

 soil, and by other circumstances affecting its fer- 

 tility. 



Along the Frith of Forth, from the eastern to 

 the western boundary, the land rises gently, and 

 has no great elevation above the sea. Here the 

 soil is, for the most part, of an excellent quali- 

 ty ; deep rich loam, good clay, and gravel mix- 

 ed with loamy earth. In many places the soil 

 lies on rotten rock ; and, when this is the case, 

 it seldom fails to be dry and remarkably fertile. 

 About Largolaw, Kinghorn, Burntisland, and 

 some other places, where the ground is broken 

 and uneven, swelling abruptly into eminences 

 or little hills, the soil is deep and rich, not only 

 in the interjacent valleys, but as far up the hills 

 and rising grounds as they are accessible to the 

 plough. 



The breadth of this division, from south to 

 north, is very different, in different places. 

 From the parish of Leven, as it stretches east- 

 ward, it gradually expands, till it reaches the 

 breadth of three miles, and exhibits a beautiful 

 tract of rich flat land, unequalled, in point of 

 extent, by any in the county. From the mouth 



