CHAPTER XIII. 



SOUTHERN SCOTLAND. 



(Wigtown, Ayr, Kirkcudbright, Dvmkries. Eoxburgh, Selkirk, Berwick, Haddington, Edinburgh, 

 Linlithgow, Peebles, Lanark, Eenfrew, Bute, Dumbarton, Clackmannan, Stirling, Kinross, 

 Fife.) 



General Features. 



OUTIIEPtN Scotland, by the nature of its soil no less than with 

 respect to its inhabitants, forms a well-marked geographical pro- 

 vince. The far-penetrating Solway Firth and the crest of the 

 Cheviot Hills very distinctly mark its southern boundary towards 

 England. But the line to the north of the Clyde and the Firth 

 of Forth, which is supposed to separate the Scottish Lowlands from the Highlands, 

 is altogether conventional and not so well defined. It passes through the 

 mountain spurs which descend towards the level country ; it separates men differing 

 in race, and marks a climatic boundary. Southern Scotland, such as it has 

 revealed itself in history, coincides pretty nearly with the tract of country enclosed 

 within the two old Roman walls. This tract is very much inferior to the remainder 

 of Scotland in area, but fur surpasses it in industry and power, and contains two- 

 thirds of its population. 



The contrasts between England and Scotland are manifested even in the 

 geological structure of the two countries. In Northern England the geological 

 formations strike north and south, and the Pennine chain runs in the same 

 direction ; whilst in Scotland the geological formations, far more regular in their 

 outlines, strike across the country from south-west to north-east, and from sea to 

 sea. The strike is the same in the Cheviot Hills, no less than in the Carrick 

 Hills, the Louther Hills, the ]Moorfoot and Lammermuir Hills, to the south of the 

 plain extending from the Forth to the Clyde, and in the Grampians and other 

 ranges of Xorthern Scotland. But though the mountain chains in the two portions 

 of Caledonia run in the same direction, the rocks which form them are different. 

 The carboniferous formation, which lies across the isthmus, contrasts with the 

 more ancient mountains in Northern Scotland, and through the mineral treasures 



