380 THE BEITISH ISLES. 



its edges crumbled up. Most islands and peninsulas rise into a central point, or 

 are traversed by a backbone of mountains ; but not so Ireland. The whole of the 

 central portion of that island is occupied by a vast plain, nowhere more than 250 

 feet above the sea-level.* All around this depression the country rises into hills 

 and mountains, which form a ring-shaped rampart along the coast, through which 

 wide breaches at intervals give access to the sea. The plain comprises about 

 half the area of the island, and consists of regularly bedded carboniferous lime- 

 stone, whilst most of the mountains which environ it are composed of granite, 

 metamorphosed slates, and other ancient rocks. Geologically Ireland contrasts 

 in a remarkable manner with England, for whilst in the latter the various 

 formations succeed each other v/ith regularity, and enable us to measure as it 

 were the cycle of ages since the deposition of the oldest sedimentary rock, the 

 western sister island presents the appearance of having been almost wholly built 

 up and sculptured during the epochs which preceded the carboniferous. There are 

 hardly any mesozoic rocks, and the more recent formations are only very sparingly 

 represented in the volcanic region of North-western Ireland, between Lough Neagh 

 and the Xorth Channel. Ireland is geologically a much more ancient country 

 than England, its age being the same as that of the Scotch Highlands and of 

 Wales, from which it was severed by an irruption of the sea. 



The distribution of the mountain groups and the configuration of the coast 

 explain in a measure the fate of the country. Though apparently compact in 

 shape, Ireland nevertheless has no geographical centre. Its vast plain, extend- 

 ing from the Bay of Dublin to that of Galway, and covered with bogs and a 

 multitude of lakes, very distinctly separates its two upland regions. The region 

 in the north-east, which is bounded by the Bays of Dundalk and Donegal, and 

 juts out like a peninsula towards Scotland, is occupied by a distinct group of 

 mountains, and forms the nucleus of the province of Ulster. Similarly Con- 

 naught, in the north-west, has its separate system of mountains and lakes. 

 Munster, in the south-west, and Leinster, in the south-east, are separated bv 

 the plain of Tipperary, whilst the greater portion of the central plain formed 

 part of the ancient province of Meath. Each of these geographical provinces 

 exercised a modifying influence upon the men by whom they were inhabited. 

 Ulster was, above all, exposed to the incursions of the Scotch. Leinster 

 and Meath appeared to be intended by nature to fall an easy prey to the 

 English ; whilst Munster, on the open Atlantic, attracted Phœnicians, and later 

 on Spaniards, Algerines, and French, to its hospitable bays. Connaught, the 

 most remote of these provinces, afforded a last refuge to the indigenous popu- 

 lations flying before conquering invaders. But, besides this, every separate group 

 of mountains became a place of shelter to the conquered population dwelling 

 around. The mountains of Galtyraore in the south, and those of Tyrconnell in 

 Donegal, have repeatedly afforded shelter to fugitives, and ancient customs long 

 survived in their valleys after they had died out elsewhere.f 



* Edward Hull, "The Physical Geology and Geography of Ireland." 

 t Sullivan, "New Ireland." 



