4 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF BRITAIN. 



1055 yds), Carnarvon (Snowdon, 1190 yds), and Inver- 

 ness (Ben Nevis, 1455 yds). The groups or ranges 

 second in respect to elevation, as the Penine range and 

 Cairngorm group, are more central. But it is only quite 

 in the north of Britain that we find high mountains near 

 the eastern coast. 



From the western position of the loftiest mountains of 

 England, Wales, and Scotland, the total absence of any 

 mountain-like elevation in the south-east of England, and 

 the second-rate mountains of England and Scotland being 

 more central, and coming nearer to the eastern coast 

 northwards, it follows that in a general view over Britain 

 the gradual rise of surface, as already mentioned, is from 

 south-east to north-west. This, however, applies strictly 

 to the interior ranges of mountains only, or to the actual 

 summits ; those near the western coasts being so deeply 

 cut and divided by narrow valleys, that at the bases of 

 the loftiest we find lakes and small flats of land scarcely 

 raised above the sea level. The declivities of the mountains 

 towards the north and west are consequently very rapid; 

 while to the south or east they are much more gradual. 

 The following list of the altitudes of hills, stations, &c. is 

 compiled from various sources, as indicated by the letters 

 in the first column after the names. In transcribing the 

 list I have unluckily omitted and lost some few of the 

 authorities. The rest are explained at the end of the list. 

 It will be quite evident from the different estimates, which 

 in some instances are given for the same hill, that the re- 

 puted heights of many of them admit of question : see the 

 Ochils in Perthshire, Ben na Buird in Aberdeenshire, 

 and West Lomond in Kinross-shire, for examples.* 



* As a recent example of the vague manner in which heights are 

 mentioned even in works of authority, we find Cader Idris called the 

 second summit of Wales by the author of the Encyclopaedia of Geo- 

 graphy, while the Trigonometrical Survey shows several others to be 

 much loftier. 



