286 
HISTORY OF BRITISH FERNS. 
is traced, corresponding with the county boundaries, and 
following that course which best divides the counties whose 
rivers flow to the east coast, from those whose waters flow 
to the west. These two longitudinal divisions are subdi¬ 
vided transversely into groups of counties, which together 
constitute the basin of a principal river, or have some 
other physical peculiarity in common. The medial line is 
not continued northward of Inverness, where Scotland 
becomes very narrow. A portion of Inverness, eastward 
of Loch Erricht, is united with the contiguous East High¬ 
land province; and the extreme north of Lancashire is 
united with the Lake province. Ireland, which Mr. 
Watson has omitted, is added to our list, and the Western 
severed from the Northern Isles, to form a connecting link 
with that country. This gives the following arrange¬ 
ment :— 
1. Peninsula.— Cornwall, Devon, Somerset. 
2. Channel.— Hants, Sussex, Dorset, Wilts. 
3. Thames. —Herts, Middlesex, Kent, Surrey, Berks, 
Oxford, Bucks, Essex. 
4. Ouse.— Huntingdon, Bedford, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cam¬ 
bridge, Northampton. 
