44 The Soils of Ireland 



in the Highlands the extensive areas of the higher moun- 

 tain moors are entirely reserved as " deer-forests " or 

 ranges for the red deer (Gervus elaphus). 



The Southern Uplands extend from the Central Plain 

 southwards to the English border. They 

 Uplands consist of Ordovician and Silurian siliceous 



rocks with local intruded igneous masses. 

 The hills have steep slopes and broad rounded summits, 

 rarely exceeding 2000 feet (c. 600 m.) and generally 

 covered with grassy or heathy moorland which provides 

 grazing for large numbers of sheep. This region and the 

 somewhat similar Welsh hills are the two most important 

 sheep-grazing areas in Great Britain, sustaining in both 

 cases a proportion approaching or exceeding one sheep 

 to every acre of land of all kinds. The Southern Uplands 

 are girt by broad lowland coastal belts on both east and 

 west. In the valleys of the Tweed, Nith and Clyde and 

 their tributaries agriculture and manufactures connected 

 with wool are largely carried on. 



THE SOILS OF IRELAND 



By Gbenville a. J. Cole 



The general geological structure of Ireland is easily 

 comprehended. A great low-lying plain, 

 structure. based upon Carboniferous Limestone, forms 



the entire centre of the country. This plain 

 reaches the Irish Sea on the east, at Dublin, and touches 

 the Atlantic here and there on the west; but much 

 of the west coast, as well as the north and south of 

 the country, is mountainous. In the extreme west and 

 north-west this mountainous country is formed of very 

 old metamorphic rocks pierced here and there by granite. 

 In the south-west Millstone Grit forms some of the hilly 



