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■/^ OCT 11 1945"' 



NORTH YORKSHIRE: 



STUDIES OF ITS BOTANY, GEOLOGY, CLIMATE, AND 

 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



INTRODUCTION. 



North Yorkshire, as the term is here employed, comprises 

 the North Riding of Yorkshire, properly so called, and also 

 the Ainsty and City of York. For legal purposes the City of 

 York is a County by itself, and the Ainsty is now a wapentake 

 of the West Riding ; but North Yorkshire, as here understood, 

 is the parliamentary district which is designated by that name. 

 It is bounded on the north by Durham, on the west by West- 

 morland, on the south by the West and East Ridings of York- 

 shire, and on the east by the German Ocean. It includes a 

 surface of irregularly rhomboidal contour, 2,112 square miles 

 (1,361,664 acres) in area, which measures at the utmost 88 miles 

 from east to west, and 53 from north to south. Only three of the 

 English counties are larger than it is ; and these are Devonshire, 

 Lincolnshire, and Norfolk. Physically, it may be roughly 

 described as a broad central valley running north and south 

 between two ranges of hills. The western mass attains an eleva- 

 tion of about 2,600 feet above the sea-level, and the range which 

 is situated on the east of the central valley reaches nearly 1,500 

 feet, the general slope of the surface being from north-west to south- 

 east. The Riding embraces within its limits a very wide diversity 

 of natural features; a coast line where long ranges of cliff succeed 

 undulated banks of shifting sand and low flat tracts of marsh ; a 

 rich and well-cultivated interior mapped out into fields of corn 

 and grass, separated from one another by thick shadowy hedge- 

 rows, and diversified by woods and rivers ; and above the valley 

 on either side rise extensive tracts of moorland country, bleak 

 and heathery throughout its higher levels, intersected by pleasant 

 dales and clear sparkling streams, its summits girdled with long 

 lines of rugged and precipitous scar. Its productive industry 

 is mainly agricultural, that which does not ally itself to some 

 branch of farming being principally employed in the iron trade 

 and with shipping, and there are no manufactures or coal mines ot 

 any considerable extent wdthin its limits. York, with its castle and 

 cathedral and old historic memories, is its only city, and has 



Bot. Trans. Y.N.U., Vol. 3. B 



