CHAPTER XI. 



THE NORTH OF ENGLAND, THE CUMBRIAN MOUNTAINS, THE BASINS OF THE 

 EDEN, THE TESS, AND THE TYNE. 



(Cumberland, Westmoreland, Durham, and Northumberland.) 



General Features, 



^ HAT part of England wliicli lies to the north of the estuary of the 

 Tees and Morecanibe Bay forms a distinct geographical region of 

 transition, which connects the south of the island with North 

 Britain. The mountainous peninsula of Cumhria is still bounded 

 by another gulf in the north, namely, the Solway Firth, which 

 penetrates into the land to within 60 miles of the German Ocean. The 

 tidal currents which ascend the rivers falling on the one hand into the Irish 

 Sea, and on the other into the German Ocean, ai^proach within 50 miles of each 

 other. 



The Pennine chain, which begins to the north of Derby, and bounds the 

 basins of the Trent and Ouse on the west, separates farther north the basin of 

 the Eden from that of the Tees, and finally coalesces with the Cheviot Hills 

 on the Scotch frontier. The highest summit of the entire chain, the Cross Fell 

 (2,928 feet), rises in this northern portion. But the Silurian and granitic moun- 

 tains, which are attached to the " backbone " of England by a transversal ridge 

 of moderate elevation, are more lofty still. When the weather is favourable the 

 traveller who climbs these, the proudest mountains of all England, sees spread 

 beneath him nearly the whole of the Irish Sea, together with the hills that 

 bound ic. Whilst ascending them he successively passes through different 

 zones or climates. Starting from the smiling country, abounding in orchards, 

 at their foot, he traverses the pine woods which clothe their lower slopes, and 

 finally emerges upon the fells, which yield nought but ling and bracken. The 

 topmost summits are clad with verdure only during summer and autumn, for 

 in winter and spring they are either covered with snow, or their scant vegeta- 

 tion is tinged a russet brown by the frost. As they face the moisture-laden 

 south-westerly winds, the amount of precipitation is enormous, averaging about 

 80 inches a year, and even reaching 16 feet in some localities, where the clouds are 



