2GG 



THE BRITISH ISLES. 



forbidding niavshcs. These moorlands are not by any means fertile, and before 

 the coal mines which lie amongst them were opened to become a source of wealth 

 to the county, they supported only a small population. Since then hamlets have 

 grown into towns, towns into provinces of houses, and there is not a district of 

 similar extent in England which supports so large a number of inhabitants. 

 Northern Lancashire includes a similar tract of moorland in the west, which rises 



Fig. 131. — Towns in Lancashiuk a.nj) Chkshike. 

 Scale 1 : 792,000. 



10 Miles. 



to a height of 1,709 feet in the Bleasdale Moors ; but for the most part it consists 

 of a broad plain, the maritime portion of which, between the Eibble and Lancaster 

 Bay, is known as the Fylde. The hundred of Furness forms part of the Cumbrian 

 region, and within it lie a portion of the Windermere and Coniston Water, from 

 the banks of which Coniston Old Man rises to a height of 2,655 feet. 



