2 INTRODUCTION. 



now (1887) within its parliamentary limits a population of over 

 76,000. Then come the Tees-side towns: — Middlesbrough, a 

 port for the Durham coal-field, and the nucleus of the Cleveland 

 iron district, which has risen during the present century from a 

 solitary farm-house to a town of nearly 70,000 inhabitants at 

 the present time (1887) • and South Stockton, with 10,600 

 inhabitants. Next in order are the fashionable sea-side resorts : 

 Scarborough, with 36,000, and Whitby, with 18,600 inhabitants ; 

 and Redcar (with Coatham), Saltburn-by-the-Sea and Marske, 

 each about 5,000 or so. Next follow four agricultural 

 centres, not long ago parliamentary boroughs, Malton, Rich- 

 mond, Thirsk, and Northallerton, with populations ranging from 

 5,300 to 3,700. Besides these there are fourteen agricultural 

 market towns, with populations ranging from upwards of 6,600 

 to about 600, which in order of population are as follows, viz. : — 

 Guisborough, Pickering, Easingwold, Hawes, Kirby-moorside, 

 Stokesley, Helmsley, Yarm, Masham, Bedale, Reeth, Leyburn, 

 Middleham, and Askrigg. The average population of the 

 whole of North Yorkshire in 1881 was 164 to a square mile; 

 and in the North Riding, exclusive of the Ainsty, the area 

 occupied by corn-crops was 206,651 acres, green-crops 75,605 

 acres, clover and grasses 62,631 acres, permanent pasture 

 469,799 acres, flax 11 acres, bare fallow 35,874 acres, orchards 

 979 acres, market gardens 283 acres, nursery grounds 184 acres, 

 and woodland 49,106 acres. 



Into the past history of the inhabitants of the district, of their 

 rulers and other notabilities, of their wars and progress in the 

 various arts of civilization, its castles, abbeys, camps and other 

 antiquarian remains, it is proposed not to enter at all, 

 but to confine attention to the physical features which 

 the field of study itself presents ; in the first place to 

 consider the circumstances and details of the internal struc- 

 ture, physical geography and climate of its various districts ; and 

 afterwards to enumerate the plants of the higher orders which it 

 produces and treat respecting their distribution over the 

 various parts of its surface, at the same time endeavouring to 

 trace out in what way the facts connected with the distribution 

 of the plants connect themselves with, and serve to indicate con- 

 ditions of climate and geological constitution. 



