Comparative Agriculture of Enrjland and Wales. 
275 
between Durham and the West Riding ; and the series would then 
be complete.* The Lower Carboniferous rocks of the Pennine 
Chain sink below the newer formations with a gradual slope on 
their eastern side, more abruptly on the south-west, whilst along 
their north-western limit they end in a grand " escarpment," 
overlooking the valley of the Eden (see Section No. 1). The 
Pennine Chain joins the Cumbrian Mountains by the high land 
on the north-east of Kendal, much of which is over 1000 feet in 
height. It is quite broken through, however, by the narrow 
valley of the Lune. 
The higher parts of the Pennine Range are generally bare, 
alike of trees and houses. The lead-mining district of Alston 
Moor is a curious exception to this rule. Here a considerable 
number of people live at a great elevation ; quite above the 
limit of cultivated land. In an account of a school at Allen- 
heads it is stated that of 40 or 50 children only 5 had seen 
wheat growing ; and " the master mentioned that in all the time 
he had had charge of Allenheads School there was but one boy 
who had pulled a bird's nest."t We presume because nests are 
exceedingly scarce. 
The Cumbrian Mountains, of Silurian slaty rocks, rise abruptly 
from the fertile valley of the Eden, and are almost wholly waste 
land. They form a large proportion of the area of West- 
moreland. The valleys which run up into the mountain-range 
have strips of pasture along their lower slopes, and some of the 
deepest contain corn-land. Westmoreland, however, is by far 
the least productive county in England : its percentage-area of 
arable land only slightly exceeds that of Merioneth, the least 
productive of the Welsh counties ; in corn it is even less pro- 
ductive, the percentages are : — 
Westmoreland, Arable 10'7 .. Corn 4-7 .. Pasture 35-2 
Merioneth „ 8-9 .. „ 4-9 .. „ 20-7 
The Welsh Mountains form the third great unproductive area. 
They are composed mainly of Silurian and Cambrian rocks. 
A large proportion of the corn grown in this district is oats and 
barley. Anglesey and Flint have the smallest quantity of high 
land. The former, indeed, has no mountain land, its appearance 
* "Hill Pastures" are not included in the Agricultural Eeturns, and all such 
are here spoken of as Waste Land. The boundary line, however, between them 
and what is taken as "Permanent Pasture" is often very ill defined; and, in 
point of real value for stock, there are considerable areas of hill pasture which sur- 
pass much of the poorer pasture fields at lower levels. This must always be 
remembered when comparing the quantity of cattle and sheep kept in different 
counties. These numbers are given in the Returns, but will not be farther con- 
sidered in the present paper. 
t "Walter White, ' Northumberland and the Border,' p. 460. 
T 2 
