70 



THE BRITISH ISLES. 



south, known as the Yulo of Glamorgan, is generally level. It is the most 

 fertile portion of Wales, and heavy crops of wheat are raised on. a reddish clay 

 soil. The coast is most irregular towards the west, where the peninsula of Gower, 

 hetween Swansea Bay and Burry Inlet, juts out into the Bristol Channel. Off its 

 south-western point lies a small island, terminating in the forbidding promontory 

 known as the Worm's Head. The chief rivers are the Llwchwr (Loughor), sepa- 

 rating the county from Carnuirthensliire, the Tawe, the Neath, the Taf, and the 

 Rumney, the last forming the eastern boundary. The great wealth of the county 

 in coal and iron, combined with its running streams and excellent harbours, has 



Fig. 38.— Swansea. 

 Scale 1 : 200,000. 



3' 50 



WoP Gr 



X oieshoie. 



Lepth under 5 Fathoms. 



5 to 10 Fathoms. 

 2 Miles. 



Over 10 Fathoms 



caused its manufacturing industry and commerce to flourish, and its population is 

 more dense than that of any other county in Wales. 



English is almost universally understood, although Welsh continues to be the 

 language of the majority. There is only one tract of any extent within which 

 English is spoken to the entire exclusion of Welsh. This is the peninsula of 

 Gower, in which Flemish colonists established themselves in 1103. It is famous for 

 its cromlechs. Physically the inhabitants of this peninsula are said to differ from 

 their neighbours, and a few words of Flemish survive amongst them, although they 

 have discontinued the use of their mother tongue since the fifteenth century.* 



Swansea, at the mouth of the Tawe, is an unattractive town, which owes its 



* Varenbcrgh, " Patria Belgica," iii. 



