ing the steeple, was destroyed by fire in January, 1841. Dundee is connected by railways with Arbroath and Brechin on the one hand, and Newtyle on the other. It carries on a regular steam intercourse with London.

Perth, the chief town of the county of the same name, is celebrated on account of its elegant appearance and the beautiful situation which it enjoys on the banks of the Tay, here a broad and majestic stream. Umbrella-cloths, ginghams, handkerchiefs, and shawls, are manufactured in Perth in considerable quantities, the number of weavers employed being sixteen hundred; and there are a flax spinning-mill and an extensive bleachfield. The river being navigable to this place for small vessels, there is a harbor, chiefly for coasting trade. The salmon fisheries on the river are a source of considerable income: the fish are sent to London, in boxes, the number of which, in 1835, was five thousand, amounting to two hundred and fifty tons. Perth had in 1831, a population of 20,016, and it is represented by one member in parliament. The streets of Perth are generally rectangular, and well built of stone. The river is spanned by a substantial bridge, connecting the town with a small suburb on the other side, and forming part of the great north road. The town contains most of the public buildings found in places of similar character and magnitude: the ancient church of St. John, an elegant suite of county buildings, an academy, and town-hall, are those most entitled to notice within the town. In the environs, besides a lunatic asylum, there is a structure designed, when finished, to serve as a national reformatory for criminals. The beauty and salubrity of Perth are much enhanced by two beautiful pieces of adjacent public ground, respectively entitled the North Inch and South Inch. In the midst of a highly cultivated vale, pervaded by a great river, and with lofty mountains in the distance, Perth, especially when its own neat appearance is considered, may be said eminently to deserve its appellation of "the fair city."

Dumfries, the principal town of Dumfries-shire (seventy-one miles from Edinburgh and thirty-four from Carlisle), enjoys a beautiful situation on the Nith, which is navigable to nearly this point for small vessels. Inclusive of a large suburb on the opposite side of the river, the population is about 14,000. Dumfries has a few small manufactures, but its chief importance rests in its character as a kind of provincial capital and seat of the county courts, and as an entrepôt for the transmission of cattle and pork to the English market. Eighty-four vessels belong to the port, with an aggregate tonnage of 5783; and steam-vessels sail regularly to Liverpool. The town has a neat and clean appearance, has some handsome public buildings, and is the seat of considerable refinement. In St. Michael's churchyard repose the remains of Robert Burns, over which his admirers have reared a handsome mausoleum.

Inverness (one hundred and fifty-five miles from Edinburgh) is the principal seat of population in the northern counties of Scotland. It is an ancient royal burgh, a seaport for the export and import trade of the district, and the seat of the county courts. The situation on the river Ness, near its junction with the sea, with some picturesque eminences in the neighborhood, is one of great beauty, and the town itself is well built and remarkably clean. Inverness is often called the highland capital, being within the line of the Grampians, and the residence of many persons connected with that district. The population of the town and parish, in 1831, was 14,324. Among objects of interest may be enumerated-the remains of a fort built by Cromwell; Craig-Phadric, an eminence crowned by a vitrified fort; and the moor of Culloden (distant five miles), the scene of the fatal battle which extinguished the hopes of the house of Stuart.

The principal towns in Scotland next to those already enumerated, are-in Ayrshire, Kilmarnock, a prosperous seat of the coarser woollen manufacture-population about twenty thousand; Âyr, the capital of the county, a thriving market-town, and in a small degree a seaport-population (including dependencies) about seventeen thou sand; in Stirlingshire, Stirling, the county town, remarkable chiefly for its castle, a favorite seat of the Scottish monarchs, and from which the most splendid views are commanded; Falkirk, a busy market-town, and the centre of a district remarkable for its iron-foundries, particularly the celebrated one of Carron-population about seven thousand in Fifeshire, Dunfermline, the principal seat of the manufacture of damasks, diapers, and similar fabrics-population about eighteen thousand; Cupar, the county town; Kirkaldy a busy manufacturing and seaport town; St. Andrews, the seat of an ancient university: in Forfarshire, Montrose, and Arbroath, active seats of the linen trade, and likewise seaports: in Morayshire, Elgin, an ancient royal burgh, and county town.

DESCRIPTION OF IRELAND.

CHAPTER XLVI.

GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION.-GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE.— MINERALOGY.

THIS large and important section of the United Kingdom is geographically described as an island situated to the west of Great Britain, from which it is divided by a strait, called at different places St. George's channel, the Irish sea, and North channel, the Atlantic forming the boundary on the other sides. Of a more compact form than Great Britain, it is nevertheless penetrated by a considerable number of deep bays and estuaries, which give it an outline upon the whole irregular. Besides enjoying this advantage for internal navigation, it may be considered as more favorably situated for foreign commerce than either England or Scotland. It lies between fifty-one degrees nineteen minutes and fifty-five degrees twenty-three minutes north latitude, and five degrees nineteen minutes and ten degrees twenty-eight minutes of west longitude from Greenwich; but the greatest length, from Browhead in the county of Cork, to Fair-head in the county of Antrim, is three hundred and six miles, and the longest transverse line, between similar points in the counties of Mayo and Down, one hundred and eighty-two miles. The entire area appears, from the latest and best measurement, to include thirty-one thousand eight hundred and seventy-four square miles, or twenty millions three hundred and ninety-nine thousand, six hundred and eight English statute acres.

Ireland is divided into four provinces, namely, Leinster, on the east; Munster, on the south; Ulster, on the north; and Connaught, on the west: these are subdivided into thirty-two counties, two hundred and fifty-two baronies, and two thousand three hundred and forty-eight parishes.

In superficial character, Ireland may be called a hilly or mountainous country, since there are few spots where the view is not terminated by lofty hills or mountain scenery. Generally speaking, the mountains stand in groups, and are more or less detached from each other; but in some districts they form ridges of great extent. The Mourne range, in the county of Down, lies west and east, ending with Slieve Donard, which rises two thousand eight hundred and nine feet above the level of the sea, and is the highest of the northern mountains. The Slieve Bloom mountains, placed in nearly the centre of the island, run north and south, intersecting the King's and Queen's counties: in this range, sometimes called the Ard na Erin, or Heights of Ireland, the rivers Nore, Barrow, and Suir, commonly called by the country people the Three Sisters, take their rise. In Connaught there is a fine range, of which the Twelve Pins form a part; and in Munster, a ridge of varied height extends from Dungarvon, in the county of Waterford, across the kingdom, into the county of Kerry. It may be here observed, that wherever the Irish term slieve is applied to a mountain, it expresses that that mountain forms part of a range. The highest mountain in Ireland is Carran Tual, at Killarney, being three thousand four hundred and ten feet above the level of the sea. Mount Nephin and Croagh Patrick, two conspicuous mountains in Mayo, are respectively two thousand six hundred and thirty-nine and two thousand four hundred and ninety-nine feet high.

Some, however, of the counties, though possessing a very varied surface, can only boast of hills, as Armagh, Monaghan, Cavan, and Louth, while others are in general very level: Meath, Kildare, Longford, and Galway, are of the latter character. A distinguishing peculiarity of the country, whether in its hilly or more level districts, is its generally green appearance, a círcumstance arising from its fertile soil and moist and temperate climate, and which has led to its receiving the appellations of the "Emerald Isle," and "Green Isle of the Ocean"-names sung by its poets, and repeated with affection by its natives in all quarters of the world.

In the lower and less reclaimed portions of the country, there are various extensive bogs or morasses, which disfigure the beauty of the scenery, and are only serviceable in supplying fuel to the adjacent inhabitants. The chief of these morasses is the Bog of Allen, which stretches in a vast plain, across the centre of the island, or over a large portion of Kildare, Carlow, and the King's and Queen's counties. In this bog, the beautiful river Boyne takes its rise, flowing thence northeastward to the sea at Drogheda, on the borders of the county of Louth: much of this bog has been drained and brought into tillage, and there is good reason to think that in time the whole of it will be reclaimed. Along the banks of the River Inny, which, rising in Lough Iron, in the county of Westmeath, crosses Longford and falls into the Shannon, are large tracts of deep wet bog, only exceeded in dreariness by that which for miles skirts the Shannon, in its course through Longford, Roscommon, and the King's county. All these bogs might be easily reclaimed, could they be drained; but that can not be accomplished, as the Inny and the Shannon are kept up to their present level by the numerous eel-weirs which at present interrupt their course. There are also many tracts of bog in the western counties, and many detached bogs both in Ulster and Munster; but none of such great size as those above mentioned. It is remarkable, that, notwithstanding the quantity of water contained in these extensive bogs, there arises from them no miasma injurious to health. This is attributable to the large portion of tannin they contain, which possesses so strong an antiseptic quality, that bodies plunged into a deep bog remain undecayed, the flesh becoming like that of an Egyptian mummy. It sometimes happens that a bog, overcharged with water during a rainy season, breaks through the obstruction which the drained and more solid part affords, and, rushing forward, overflows large portions of good land. This occurred in the year 1821, when the Bog of Clara, in the county of Westmeath, suddenly burst into the valley of the river Brusna, and totally destroyed many hundred acres of excellent land: a similar occurrence took place, to a large extent, a very few years since, in the county of Antrim.

Ireland is described as a thickly-wooded country, not only by her early native writers, but by all those English authors who have given any account of the country, from the days of Giraldus Cambrensis, about A. D. 1185. Morrison (1596) and Davis (1605), mention the forests in which the poor Irish took refuge; and all the scenery of Spenser's Fairy Queen is drawn from the River Bandon, which he cele brates as the "pleasant Bandon, wood y-crowned," as it is to this day. Boate, in his Natural History, mentions the great extent of wood then standing; but not long did it so stand, for wherever Cromwell's army came, the forests were felled, and the country laid bare. In most cases, the bogs give ample testimony to the truth of these statements, some supplying large quantities of fir, which burns with a pleas ant aromatic smell, and a flame so brilliant that it is often used in place of candles. In other bogs, only oak is dug up, and sometimes sallow, and yew of a great size, which takes a fine polish and is used for cabinet-work. There are still, in a few favored spots, some remains of the ancient oak and ash woods, as at Killarney, at Glengariffe near Bantry, in Connemara, in some spots of the county of Wicklow, and in Donegal, near the beautiful but little Lough Van, where a few red deer are still to be seen. Near the mouth of the Suir, at the foot of the Knockmeledan mountains, is a wood of the pine species, commonly called Scotch fir, of such size and hardness, that Mr. Nimmo, the engineer, pronounced it to be equal to the best Memel timber, and used it in constructing the pier at Dunmore. Many noblemen and gentlemen have planted largely and with great success, their flourishing plantations giving promise that the country in a few years will again be furnished with

trees.

Ireland possesses many large and remarkably fine rivers, several of which form lakes at certain points in their course, and fall into the sea at the head of spacious bays every way suitable for navigation. The principal rivers are the Foyle and the

Bann, which flow into the Northern ocean; the Boyne, the Liffey, and the Slaney, which empty themselves into the Irish channel; the Barrow and the Nore, which, falling into the Suir, pour their united streams into the bay of Waterford; the Blackwater and the Lee, which run southward, their embouchures being at Youghal and Cork; the Shannon, the Gweebarra, the Erne, the Moy, the Mang, and the Lane, which flow into the Atlantic. Among inland lakes or loughs, the largest is Lough Neagh, in Ulster, which exceeds in size any lake in the United Kingdom, its length being twenty miles by a breadth of from ten to twelve: its waters are discharged by the Bann.

Ireland stretches westward into the Atlantic, and is indented, as has been stated, by deep bays, protected by jutting promontories, which have hitherto withstood the force of the boisterous ocean to which they are exposed. The rock which forms the bed or bottom of these bays, is generally composed of the secondary or carboniferous limestone, while the projecting promontories to the north and south of each are composed, for the most part, of primary or transition rocks, and particularly of granite, mica-slate, quartz rock, grawacke, and old red sandstone conglomerate. In Ireland the coast is mostly mountainous, and the interior flat. Thus, we find the mountains of Antrim on the east; of Derry and Donegal on the northwest coasts; those of Sligo and Kerry west and southwest. The slate districts of Cork and Waterford form the south and southeast, while the mountains of Wicklow, and those still higher ones of Louth and Down, are situated on the eastern coast. The interior of the island is, generally speaking, composed of flat or gently swelling grounds, covered with rich and fruitful soil. This peculiar conformation of the surface has been the origin of the great number of rivers with which the Irish coast abounds. They have their sources in the neighboring mountains, whence they flow directly to the sea. The flatness of the interior of Ireland has been the probable cause of those vast accumulations of alluvial matter called escars. They possibly originated at a period when the country was at least partially submerged, from eddies formed by undulations on the surface. The origin of the great tracts of bog found so generally in the flat country, may be attributed to the water pent up, as we even now find it, above the level of the dry country, by gravel hills, which form a continuous ridge, though not of equal height, round the edge of the bog. The central district of Ireland contains upward of one million of acres of bog, comprehended between Wicklow head and Galway, Houth head and Sligo.

A vast tract of limestone extends in an almost unbroken line from the north of Cork to the south of Fermanagh, with an intermixture toward the eastern coast of clayslate, grawacke, and grawacke-slate, with veins of granite interspersed, as is the case in the counties of Down, Armagh, and Wicklow. The southern coast is composed of limestone and old conglomerate, with red, purple, and gray clayslate, which may be distinctly seen along the shores of Cork and Waterford. In the southwestern coasts are large tracts of coal formation; while the western are formed of granite, carboniferous limestone, including the lower limestone, calp or black shale series, and the upper limestone, with a tract of the coal formation. There are also in Galway, Mayo, and Sligo, tracts of mica-slate, quartz rock, yellow sandstone, and conglomerate. The northern division, consisting of the counties of Donegal and Derry, is chiefly mica-slate, with an intermixture, in the northern part of Donegal, of granite, quartz rock, and primary limestone; while the county of Antrim is composed of tabular trap. The counties in which coal is worked are Carlow, Kilkenny, Donegal, Limerick, Tyrone, and part of Tipperary.

Ireland is rich in minerals, and contains gold, silver, though not in large veins, as well as copper, lead, coal, and sulphur. Her quarries also produce a variety of beautiful marbles, as the black marble of Kilkenny, the green of Galway, and the many-colored of Fermanagh. The quarries of Killaloe and of Valentia, in the county of Kerry, afford large-sized, excellent slates, now coming extensively into use. Nor should the inexhaustible supply of extremely fine building-stone, which the hills south of Dublin afford, be left unmentioned. Of this granite, the particular vein which is worked at the coast village of Bullock, has been found to withstand the wash of the sea better than any other kind of stone, and is exclusively reserved for the building of the lower stories of those lighthouses which are exposed to violent sea-wash. The stones are cut on the spot, and shipped ready fitted to their places.