TOPOGRAPHICAL FEATURES 311 



having an. even surface. Not only does it slope up- 

 ward and inland from the coast, until, where it abuts 

 against the foot of the hills, it has reached heights 

 of 600 or 800 feet, but when looked at more closely 

 it presents a somewhat diversified topography. Though 

 the heights and hollows never vary much from 

 the general average level, they include not only 

 smooth, grassy ridges but also low cliffs that run 

 along the declivities, rising sometimes into craggy 

 scarps ; likewise narrow gullies and ravines with steep 

 walls, as well as wide, open, smooth-sided valleys. 

 The surface is for the most part clothed with pasture ; 

 yet the brown and yellow rock that forms most of 

 the plain protrudes in many places, not only where 

 it has been laid bare by natural causes, but where 

 it has been artificially cut away or scooped into 

 subterranean recesses. 



Such a varied form of ground was eminently favour- 

 able for human settlement. The earliest races could 

 find or make rock-shelters almost anywhere. The 

 fertility of the soil afforded to their successors good 

 pasturage and fields for tillage, while the hillocks, 

 girt round with cliffs, ancT^the flat-topped ridges, 

 shelving precipitously to lower ground, offered excellent 

 sites for fortification and defence. Owing to the 

 porous nature of the ground, much of the rain sinks 

 at once beneath the surface, instead of flowing off 

 in brooks. Hence many of the valleys are usually 

 dry, unless in wet seasons. But water can be obtained 

 all over the district by sinking wells, and that this 

 source of supply has been in use from a remote period 

 and to an almost incredible extent, has been strikingly 



