EENFEEWSHIRE. 319 



other engineers the city more distant from the sea gained the victory, and 

 became the great emporium of the Clyde. By 1875 the Lower Clyde had 

 been completely embanked, and its depth at low water was nowhere less than 

 8 feet. Since that time the persevering work of powerful dredging machines 

 has almost trebled the depth, and vessels of 1,000 tons can at all times lie 

 at the side of the quays of Broomielaw. The Clyde was the first river 

 regularly navigated by steam- vessels. This happened in 1812, and six years 

 later a line of steamers had been established between Greenock and Ireland. 

 At the present time Glasgow communicates with every part of the world, 

 and the Clyde ports only yield in activity to those of the Thames, the 

 Mersey, and the Tyne. It has been noticed that gulls have become more 

 numerous in the valley of the Clyde since Glasgow has grown into a great 

 maritime port, and it is evident that these birds follow in the wake of 

 vessels. 



Govan and Purtick, on the Clyde, below Glasgow, have ship- yards and print 

 works. Maryhill, to the north-west, is a small manufacturing town. 



Renfrewshire occupies the low-lying land on the southern bank of the Clyde 

 below Glasgow, and extends upwards from the river bank to the crest of a ridge 

 formed of igneous rock, which separates it from Ayrshire, and attains a height of 

 1,700 feet. The country possesses iron and coal, and its dense population is 

 engaged in building iron ships and machinery, cotton-spinning and other textile 

 industries, iron-founding, and sugar refining. 



Renfrew^ the county town, on the Cart, not far from its mouth into the 

 Clyde, is now a place of little note, having been long since outstripped by its 

 neighbour Paisley, 2 miles above, which manufactures cotton, woollens, tartans, 

 thread, shawls, and machinery. Still higher up in the valley of the Cart, which 

 for a considerable portion of its course runs parallel with the Clyde, are the 

 smaller manufacturing towns of Pollocks/taivs, Thornliebank, Bushy, and Eagles- 

 ham. Barrhead and Neilston, on Leven "Water, a tributary of the Cart, are 

 engaged in the cotton and linen trades. The alum works of Hurlet are near 

 the former, and both have collieries and iron mines. Johnstone and Kilbar- 

 chan, on the Black Cart, are dependencies of Paisley, with collieries in their 

 neighbourhood. 



Port Glasgow was founded by the merchants of Glasgow, but since the 

 deepening of the river has much declined in importance, though still a bust- 

 ling port, with ship-yards and other manufactures. Greenock, its neighbour, 

 though only provided with a harbour in the beginning of the eighteenth 

 century, has become one of the great towns of Scotland, where the construc- 

 tion of iron steam- vessels is carried on to a great extent, besides which there 

 are sugar refineries, foundries, potteries, and jute and worsted factories. James 

 Watt, the improver of the steam-engine, was born at Greenock, and a marble 

 statue has been raised to his memory. Gourock, beautifully situated at the mouth 

 of the Clyde (which is defended by Fort Matilda), is much frequented as a 

 watering-place. 



