Angles and Distribution of Races. 589 



with the Gaelic clans, who possess the wilder and higher 

 grounds in the interior and western districts. There 

 is here a curious relation of the human population to 

 the geological character of the country. The Scandi- 

 navian element is strongly developed along the mari- 

 time tracts, which, being chiefly composed of Old Red 

 Sandstone, stretch away in long and fertile lowlands ; 

 while the Celts are pretty closely restricted to the 

 higher and bleaker regions where the barren gneissic 

 and schistose rocks prevail. 



