LANDSCAPE, POPULATION, AND OCCUPATION 221 



and the necessity for recreation has rendered tolerable, and even 

 desirable, tracts which have little else to recommend them. 



When food was more indigenous and less exogenous than is 

 at present the case the distribution of population showed aggrega- 

 tions in the richer agricultural districts. Most important towns 

 were market-towns situated at the outlet to agricultural districts, 

 and flourished on the handling of commodities produced in these 

 areas. Now that food is brought in so largely from outside, these 

 towns are no longer of the same importance, and others in in- 

 dustrial regions have taken their place. The present areas of con- 

 centration of population are related to the production of mineral 

 wealth, and especially coal and iron, to the manufacture of 

 commodities by means of them, and to the convenient handling 

 and transport of the manufactured articles or the raw materials. 

 Thus we find the great centres of population aggregated at, or 

 migrating to, the coal fields which provide supplies of iron and 

 steel as well as coal. This explains the position of such towns as 

 Manchester, Birmingham, Sheffield, Newcastle, Nottingham, and 

 many others. We find, too, that industries like those of wool and 

 cotton, previously carried on in the upland regions where water 

 power was available because of the juvenile topography of the 

 country, have migrated to the coalfields where the modern sources 

 of power are to be got from the underground coal. It also 

 explains the concentration of railways, the modern means of trans- 

 port, and it will be interesting to study the distribution of railways 

 as shown on a map with the geological map of the country. While 

 the South W r ales coalfield, the " Black Country," the Yorkshire 

 and Durham coalfields, are crossed by innumerable lines of railway, 

 the heart of the Pennine, the Lake District, Central Wales, and 

 Devon, are almost devoid of them, except a few trunk lines which 

 cross those areas in order to reach the industrial tracts. Other 

 important towns are situated at the outlet of these industrial 

 areas to the sea, and in this category are such examples as Liver- 

 pool, Preston, Hull, Bristol, and London itself. 



But although the great centres of population have been 

 attracted towards the areas producing mineral wealth, the 

 exact site of towns has been settled by considerations of 

 health and water. Few of the great towns are situated actually 



