"establishing cemeteries for the interment of the dead, northward, southward, and eastward of the metropolis."

It is unnecessary to give a detailed description of London churchyards. The two great receptacles for the illustrious, the noble, or the wealthy dead, are St. Paul's and Westminster abbey. Other cemeteries are, the North London or Highgate cemetery, the South Metropolitan, at Norwood, Abney Park, at Stoke Newington, Newington Butts, and another at Mile End. In all these there are to be found memorials in abundance of names known in literature, art, and science; of worthy merchants and notable citizens, famous in their day and generation; and of thousands, perhaps, in their lives each the centre of a circle, yet of whom all that now remains is dust below, and a name with a laudatory inscription above. "The number of the dead long exceedeth all that shall live. The night of time far surpasseth the day, and who knows when was the equinox? Every hour adds unto that current arithmetic which scarce stands one moment. And since death must be the Lucina of life, and even pagans could doubt whether thus to live were to die-since our longest sun sets at right descensions, and makes but winter arches, and therefore can not be long before we lie down in darkness, and have our light in ashessince the brother of death daily haunts us with dying mementoes, and time, that grows old itself, bids us hope no long duration-diuturnity is a dream and folly of expectation."

DESCRIPTION OF SCOTLAND.

CHAPTER XL.

GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION.-SOIL.-CLIMATE.-PRODUCTIONS.

AGRICULTURE.

SCOTLAND occupies the northern part of the island of Great Britain, and, divided from England by a series of hills and rivers, is externally distinguished from that country by many peculiar features. Mountain chains of primitive, or at least early rock, and in many instances uncovered by vegetation, form a large portion of the surface, giving occasion for many deep inlets of the sea, which peninsulate several districts, and render the general outline extremely irregular. Lakes embosomed in the hills, and clear, copious, and rapid rivers pouring along the vales, help to complete that picture which a native poet has expressed in the well-known apostrophe

"Land of the mountain and the flood,

Land of brown heath and shaggy wood."

The arable ground, which is not above a third of the whole surface, chiefly lies in tracts sloping to the seacoast, and in the lower parts of the vales. The less precipitous hilly districts are chiefly occupied as pastoral ground for sheep and cattle. Wood, which once covered a large portion of the surface, is now chiefly confined to the neighborhood of gentlemen's seats, and to plantations which have been raised within the last fifty years for the protection of arable lands from the cold winds.

The mainland of Scotland is situated between fifty-four degrees thirty-eight minutes and fifty-eight degrees forty minutes north latitude, and one degree forty-seven minutes and five degrees forty-five minutes west longitude. It is bounded on the east by the German ocean, on the north by the Northern ocean, on the west by the Atlantic, and on the south by England. The greatest length is two hundred and eighty-four, and the greatest breadth one hundred and forty-seven miles. The entire surface, including the islands, contains thirty thousand square miles, or nearly twenty millions of English statute acres.

To the north of a southward curving line, stretching between Glasgow and Aberdeen, the country is more mountainous than elsewhere, and therefore bears the general appellation of the "Highlands." This is a district full of romantic scenerysavage precipitous mountains, lakes, rushing streams, and wild-hanging, natural woods. Its population, numbering about 400,000, or a sixth of the entire population of the country, is of Celtic (and in a less degree Scandinavian) descent, and exhibits many peculiar features in language, dress, and manners, which are, however, rapidly becoming obliterated. The remainder of the country is termed the "Lowlands," as containing less ground of an elevated and irregular character, though here also are several considerable ranges of mountains, The inhabitants of this district, who are more peculiarly entitled to be considered as "the Scotch," are, like the English, a Teutonic people, but with probably a mixture of Celtic blood; and their language may be considered as only a variety of English.

Connected with Scotland are two large groups of islands, namely: The Northern Islands, including the Orkney and Shetland isles, situated in the Northern ocean, and the Hebrides, or Western Islands, situated in the Atlantic ocean.

Scotland and its islands contain thirty-three counties, which may be thus classed :

Border counties (so called because forming the border adjacent to England).—Berwick, Roxburg, and Dumfries.

Southwestern counties.-Kirkcudbright and Wigton.

Western counties.-Ayr, Lanark, Renfrew, Bute, and Argyle.

Central counties.-Peebles, Selkirk, Haddington, Edinburgh, Linlithgow, Stirling, Dunbarton, Clackmannan, Kinross, Fife, and Perth.

Northeastern counties.-Forfar (or Angus), Kincardine (or the Mearns), Aberdeen, Banff, Elgin (or Moray), and Nairn.

Northern counties.-Inverness, Ross, Cromarty, Sutherland, Caithness, and Orkney.

For ecclesiastical purposes, the country is divided into parishes (which are also civil divisions), presbyteries, and synods.

The principal rivers are, the Tweed, Annan, Nith, Dee (Kirkcudbright), Ayr, Clyde, Beauly, Ness, Findhorn, Spey, Deveron, Ythan, Don, Dee (Aberdeenshire), Tay, Forth, Carron, Leith, and Tyne. The Tay is the most copious, and the Spey the most rapid. Scarcely any of these rivers are navigable to a considerable distance from the sea.

The mountains of Scotland are generally in groups or ranges. The Highlands may be considered as one great cluster of hills; but those bordering on the Lowlands, and extending between Stirlingshire and Aberdeenshire, are more particularly distin guished as the Grampian mountains. The other principal ranges are the Sidiaws, in Forfarshire; the Campsie hills, in Stirlingshire; the Pentlands, in Edingburghshire; the Lammermoors, extending between Berwick and Haddington shires; the Cheviot hills, on the Border; and a great range, of no general name, extending throughout the counties of Selkirk, Peebles, Dumfries, Lanark, Ayr, and Kirkcud bright. The most noted of the Highland mountains are Ben Nevis (4,370 feet, being the highest in the United Kingdom), Ben Mac Dhui (4,327), Cairngorm (4,095), Ben More (3,870), Ben Wyvis (3,720), and Ben Lomond (3,262). The highest of the Pentland range is Carnethy (1,880). Among the southern hills, few exceed 2,500 feet.

In the Highlands, the rocks are generally of the primary kind-granite, gneiss, mica-slate, &c.; the granite generally rising into lofty peaks, on which, in many instances, gneiss and other non-fossiliferous rocks abut or rest. In the Lowlands, the rocks are generally of the transition kind (grawacke, &c.), covered in many parts with coal-measures, trap, and red sandstone. Rocks superior to the red sandstone occur only in a few detached places, and in very small quantity.

The coal-field of Scotland extends with slight interruptions, across the central part of Scotland, from the eastern extremity of Fife to Girvan in Ayrshire; the principal beds being near Dysart and Alloa, in the vale of the Esk near Edinburgh, near the line of the Forth and Clyde canal, at Paisley in Renfrewshire, and at Dalry, Kilmar nock, and Girvan, in Ayrshire. The Scottish coal is chiefly of a hard and lumpy kind, calculated to burn briskly, and therefore well adapted for manufacturing as well as for domestic purposes.

Granite is dug in the neighborhood of Aberdeen, and at Kirkcudbright, for building purposes. The city of Aberdeen itself is chiefly constructed of it; and great quantities of it are transported to London, Liverpool, and other places, to be employed in building bridges, docks, and other structures, in which unusual durability is required. Slates of excellent quality for roofing are quarried at Easdale and Ballahu lish, in Argylshire, and in other places. Sandstone slabs for paving are quarried in Caithness, and at Arbroath, in Forfarshire. A fine kind of sandstone is dug in many places, and is the primary cause of the architectural elegance of many of the public and private buildings in the principal towns. Owing to the abundance of both sandstone and trap, both of which are excellently adapted for building, little brick is used

in Scotland.

The chief metals worked in Scotland are lead and iron. Lead is extensively wrought in the hills near the junction of Lanark and Dumfries shires, and silver was formerly obtained in considerable quantities in the same district. Iron has latterly

been worked on a great scale in the northern district of Lanarkshire, and in the counties of Renfrew and Ayr. Agates, topazes, cornelians, and some other precious stones, are found in the highlands of Aberdeenshire. Mineral waters, useful for various maladies, exist at Dunse, Moffat, Innerleithen, Airthrey, Bridge of Earn, Peterhead, and Strathpeffer.

The soil of Scotland is of an extremely diversified character. On the comparatively level tracts, much is composed of loam resting on the great clay bed, or diluvium, or of alluvial clay washed down from the hills. Much level as well as hilly ground is also covered by peat bog, the dissolved forests of ancient times. On the trap hills, a light and useful soil, composed of the material below, is generally found. A considerable quantity of the arable soil throughout, being composed of reclaimed bog, contains a peaty material. Out of the thirty thousand square miles comprehended in Scotland, about thirteen thousand are totally incapable of improvement, nine thousand are wastes believed to be capable of improvement, and the remainder are pretty equally divided between arable and pasture land.

The climate, as compared with that of England, is cold, cloudy, and wet; yet the temperature is not liable to such great extremes as that of either England or France, seldom falling below twenty-five degrees of Fahrenheit, or rising above sixty-five, the annual average being from forty-five degrees to forty-seven. The summer is uncertain, and often comprehends many consecutive weeks of ungenial weather; but, on the other hand, the winters are rarely severe, and often include many agreeable days and even weeks. The backwardness of spring is perhaps the worst feature of the meteorological character of the country.

The country, as already mentioned, was originally covered in great part by wood; and this feature is believed to have been expressed in its ancient name, Caledonia (choille dun, Gaelic, a wooded hilly country). The natural wood has been allowed in the course of ages to go into decay, in all except in a few remote districts, of which we may particularize the high country at the junction of Aberdeen, Banff, Moray, and Inverness shires. In the last century Scotland had become nearly bare of wood, the only patches being around gentlemen's seats. Within the last fifty years this state of things has been greatly changed. Extensive plantations have been formed in most districts, as a protection to the cultivated lands. Those of the duke of Athole, in Perthshire, are remarkable, above all, for the vast territory which they occupy. Scottish plantations consist chiefly of larch and fir; but the country also produces oak, ash, and elm, in great abundance. It is calculated that about a million of acres in Scotland are now under wood.

Scotland formerly abounded in wild animals, particularly the wild boar, the wild ox, and the wolf. The wild boar has been for many ages extinct; and the wolf has been so since the latter part of the seventeenth century. Of the primitive white wild cattle of the country, there is now only a specimen herd, preserved from curiosity in the parks near Hamilton palace. Birds of prey, the eagle, falcon, and owl, are still found in the Highlands and Western Islands, where also deer and game birds are abundant. Aquatic birds haunt the more precipitous shores in vast quantities. Hares and rabbits everywhere abound, and foxes are not scarce. The rivers of Scotland produce salmon and trout, and herrings, haddocks, cod, and flounders, exist in great abundance in the neighboring seas.

Husbandry was in a very backward state in Scotland till the middle of the eighteenth century. The Highlands produced herds of the native small black cattle; in the low countries, the higher grounds were occupied, as now, by flocks of sheep; but there was little arable land, and that little was ill cultivated and comparatively unproductive. Since then, under the care of a set of patriotic and enlightened individuals, Scotland may be said to have been one great experimental farm for the advancement of husbandry in all its forms. The rearing of turnips for the winter support of cattle has been in itself a most remarkable improvement. A proper rotation of crops has been studied, and has been attended with the best effects. Old, cumbrous, and expensive modes of tillage have been banished, and the light plough and cart substituted in their place. Draining has improved not only the soil but the climate. Lime, and latterly bone manure, have been extensively introduced. The productiveness of the soil has consequently increased in an immense ratio. Oats, a hardy plant, calculated for most soils and climates, is still the chief grain raised in Scotland, and its meal is still the principal food of the peasantry, of working people in general, and of the children of all classes of the community: it is said