62 GEOGRAPHY. 



separates England from Scotland. Scotland is a land of hill and mountain ; 

 the Grampians constitute her most extensive range, situated north of the 

 Clyde and Forth. Ben Nevis, the highest point, has an elevation of 4380 

 feet. Ireland is an extensive plain, with a few isolated hills : the highest 

 is Curran Tual in Kerry, 3412 feet. 



The principal rivers of England are, on the east side : the Thames, the 

 Southern Ouse, the Humber (formed by the junction of the Trent and the 

 Northern Ouse), the Tyne, and the Tweed ; on the west coast, the Severn, 

 the Dee, the Mersey, Eden, and Esk. In Scotland, the Forth, Tay, and 

 Dee on the east, and the Clyde on the west. The principal river of Ireland 

 is the Shannon, which connects numerous lakes, and forms a large bay. 

 The canals of England are important means of internal communication. 

 Some of these pass over rivers, roads, and other canals, w^hile others pene- 

 trate mountains by tunnels. The most important are, in England : the Grand 

 Trunk, the Liverpool and Leeds, the Oxford, the Grand Junction, and the 

 Bridgewater between Manchester and Liverpool ; in Scotland, the Caledo 

 nian ship canal ; and in Ireland, the Grand Canal. Of the numerous lak«s, 

 the largest in England is Windermere ; in Scotland, Loch Lomond ; and in 

 Ireland, Loch Neagh. 



From its proximity to the sea, the climate of England is much damper 

 and more moderate than that of Central Europe : the freezing of the Thames 

 rarely takes place. Owing to the abundance of moisture produced by the 

 condensation of the Gulf Stream vapors, the atmosphere is very frequently 

 filled with fogs. With a large extent of fertile soil, there are extensive 

 tracts of barren moor and heath, especially in Scotland and Ireland. 



In the amount and excellence of her products, both natural and manu- 

 factured, England surpasses all the rest of Europe. The most important 

 of the former are salt, alum, vitriol, coal, iron, lead, tin, zinc, copper, cobalt, 

 calamine, arsenic, marble, alabaster, clay, pipe clay, sulphur, slate, chalk, 

 and peat; grain, potatoes, hops, madder, saffron, apples and pears, flax, 

 hemp, liquorice ; cattle, sheep, dogs, horses, goats, pigs, fish (especially 

 herring and salmon), oysters, &c. Owing to the scarcity of forests, there 

 are few wild animals, excepting hares and rabbits. 



The population of Great Britain and Ireland, according to the last 

 census (1841), amounted to nearly twenty-seven millions, in addition to 

 which, there were 150,000 in the other European possessions. Both 

 England and Ireland belong to the most populous countries of Europe, 

 The inhabitants are mostly a mixed race of Celtic, German, and Roman 

 descent. The English language proper exhibits traces of many others, but 

 is essentially derived from the ancient Saxon. The people of Wales retain 

 much of the old British or Cymrian language in their dialect ; the Highlanders 

 of Scotland and a portion of the Irish, the allied Gaelic or Erse. The 

 language of the Shetland Islands is a dialect of the Norwegian, that of the 

 Norman Islands of French : it is German in Helgoland, Italian in Malta^ 

 and Spanish in Gibraltar. As to the form of religion, the majority of the 

 inhabitants of England proper belong to the Established Church, those of 

 Scotland to the Presbyterian, and of Ireland to the Roman Catholic; there 

 62 



