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The taste manifested in the whole scheme and in its execution, is extremely creditable to the city. The walks, several miles in extent, command an extensive view of the neighbouring country. They are skirted by numberless sepulchral plots and excavations, where already affection has been busy in erecting its "frail memorials," all of which, it may be mentioned, are fashioned according to certain regulations, with a view to general keeping and effect.

The College buildings are situated on the east side of the High Street, about half-way between the Cathedral and the Trongate. They consist in a sort of double court; the front which adjoins to the street being 330 feet in length, and three storeys in height. The whole edifice has a dignified and venerable appearance. A large piece of ground behind the College is formed into a park or green, interspersed with trees and hedges, and always kept in grass, to be used by the students as a place of exercise or amusement. In the College there are appointed professors or teachers of about thirty branches of science, theorior court stands the modern Grecian building which contains the Hunterian Museum. This is a large collection of singular natural objects, coins, medals, rare manuscripts, paintings, and relics of antiquity, originally formed by Dr William Hunter, the celebrated anatomist, and bequeathed by him to this university, at which he received his education. While the College confers professional education, popular instruction is attainable, under unusually advantageous circumstances, through the medium of the Andersonian Institution, an extensive school of science founded at the close of the last century, and connected with which there is a general museum, containing many curious objects, and constantly open to the public.

colonial trade, which it still retains; but, during the last seventy years, it has chiefly been distinguished as a seat of manufactures. The weaving of lawns, cambrics, and similar articles, commenced in Glasgow in 1725. The advantages enjoyed by the city for the importation of cotton, in time gave a great impulse to that species of manufacture. In 1834, out of 134 cotton-factories existing in Scotland, 100 belonged to Glasgow, and the importation of cotton into that port amounted to 95,703 bales. In the weaving of this material, upwards of 15,000 power-looms, and 32,000 hand-loom weavers, were at the same time employed by the manufacturers of Glasgow. Of calico-printing establishments there are upwards of forty. It would be vain to attempt an exact enumeration of the less prominent features of the business carried on in Glasgow. The chief articles of importation, besides cotton, are sugar, rum, tea, tobacco, and timber. The chief articles manufactured or prepared, besides cotton goods, are sugar, soap, glass, iron, ropes, leather, chemical stuffs, and machinery. There were recently seven native banks, and several branches of other banks. Dur-logy, and polite literature. At the back of the inteing a year extending from a certain period in 1839, to a certain period in 1840, 5484 vessels, of 296,302 tonnage, arrived at the Glasgow harbour; the customhouse revenue of 1839 was £468,975, and the harbour dues of the twelvemonth ending August 31 of that year were £45,826. It is worthy of remark, that the Clyde was the first river in the elder hemisphere on which steam navigation was exemplified. A steam-vessel of three horse power was set afloat on the river in January 1812, by Mr Henry Bell of Helensburgh; and there were twenty such vessels on the Clyde before one had dis turbed the waters of the Thames. In 1835 there were sixty-seven steam-vessels, of 6691 aggregate tonnage, connected with Glasgow, eighteen of which plied to Liverpool, Belfast, Dublin, and Londonderry. Within the last few years, the city has become a great centre of the iron trade, this metal being produced in the neighbourhood to an annual amount of not less than 200,000 tons. As a necessary consequence of the commerce and manufactures which flourish in Glasgow, the city has a vast retail trade in all the articles of luxury and necessity which are used by human beings. But no circumstance connected with Glasgow could give so impressive an idea of the height to which business has been carried in it, as the rapid advance and present great amount of its population. By the census of 1791, the inhabitants were 66,578; and by the first government census in 1801, they were 77,385. But Since the Reform Act of 1832, Glasgow has the prithese numbers have been increased in 1811, 1821, and vilege of returning two members to Parliament. The 1831, respectively to 110,749, 147,043, and 202,426. places of worship, charitable institutions, and assoAs the increase is about 7000 per annum, the present ciations of various kinds for public objects, are very amount (1841) is supposed to be fully 285,000-a mass numerous. A laudable zeal for the improvement of of population which, at the time of the Union, could not education marks the city; and a normal school, or semihave been dreamt of as likely ever to exist in any Scot-nary for the rearing of teachers-the first in the empire tish city. -has been erected under the auspices of a private society.

The Cathedral, or High Church, is situated in the northern outskirts of the city, near the upper extremity of the High Street. The bulk of the existing building was constructed at the close of the twelfth century, in place of another which had been consecrated in 1136, but was destroyed by fire. It consists of a long nave and choir, a chapter-house projecting from the northeast angle, a tower and spire in the centre, and a crypt extending beneath the choir or eastern portion of the building. In the nave, termed the Outer High Kirk, was held the celebrated General Assembly of the Church, November 1638, by which Episcopacy was abolished and pure Presbytery replaced the first great movement in the civil war.

The elevated ground, near the east end of the Cathedral, has been formed into an ornamental place of sepulture, under the appellation of the Necropolis. Since 1831, the Society of Merchants, its proprietors, have expended the sum of £6000 in laying out about twenty-four acres of ground in walks and shrubberies, and in connecting the spot with the opposite slope by means of a bridge across the intermediate rivulet.

The most attractive modern building in Glasgow is the Royal Exchange in Queen Street, a most superb structure, erected in 1829, as a point of assemblage for the merchants in the western part of the city. The principal room is a large hall, supported by a double row of columns, and used as a reading-room. The front of the Exchange consists of a magnificent portico, surmounted by a cupola; and, as the building is isolated, the other sides are also of decorative architecture. Altogether, this building, supported by a set of very elegant domestic structures of similarly august proportions, impresses the mind of a stranger as something signally worthy of a great city.

The means of communication in connexion with Glasgow, are suitable to the character of the city as one of the greatest emporia of commerce and manufacture in the world. Besides a river, navigable by vessels drawing fifteen feet of water, and which gives the means of a ready communication with the western shores of Britain, with Ireland, and with America, the Forth and Clyde Canal, of which a branch comes to Port-Dundas, in the northern suburbs, serves to convey goods and passengers to the eastern shores of the island, while canals of less note connect the city with Paisley and Johnstone in one direction, and with the great coal-fields of Monkland in the other. There is also a railway, which traverses the same great coal-field, by Garnkirk and Wishaw, and conveys passengers as well as coal and goods. Another railway, connecting the city with Kilmarnock, Ayr, and the port of Ardrossan, was opened in 1840. During the year in which this sheet makes its appearance, a third railway, passing by Falkirk and Linlithgow to Edinburgh, will be opened. Others are projected. The steam communication be

a parliamentary burgh of the first class, returning one member of Parliament. The principal branches of commerce conducted in Greenock have reference to the East and West Indies, the United States, and British America, to which last it yearly sends out great numbers of emigrants. Sugar-baking and ship-building are other branches of industry carried on here to a great extent. The Customhouse, fronting to the Firth of Clyde, is a beautiful Grecian building, erected in 1818, at an expense of £30,000. The Tontine Hotel, situated in one of the principal streets, and containing a large public room, twelve sitting-rooms, and thirty bed-rooms, was built, in 1801, by 400 subscribers of L.25 each, the whole expense being thus £10,000. There is also an elegant building, in the character of an exchange, which cost £7000, and contains, besides two spacious assembly rooms, a reading-room, to which strangers are admitted gratuitously for six weeks. In Greenock there are two native banks, besides branches of several others.

tween Glasgow and Liverpool, Dublin, and other Irish | now, moreover, by virtue of the recent Reform Acts, ports, is conducted on a scale which may be called grand. The vessels are superb in magnitude, decoration, and power; and they sail frequently and rapidly. The steam intercourse between Glasgow and various places in Scotland, both for passengers and objects of traffic, is also conducted on a great scale: among the places touched at in the Clyde and to the south are Greenock, Dunbarton, Dunoon, Rothesay, Arran, Gourock, Troon, and Ayr. Among the places to the north to which vessels sail regularly, are Inverary, Campbelton, Oban, Staffa and Iona, Mull, Arisaig, Skye, Stornoway, and Inverness. In opening up markets for West Highland produce, and introducing luxuries in return, these vessels have also been of marked service, insomuch that the value of property in those hitherto secluded districts has experienced a considerable rise. The country around Glasgow, particularly towards the south, abounds in busy towns and villages, of the former of which the most remarkable is Paisley, situated in Renfrewshire, on the banks of the small river Cart, seven miles from the city above described. The external appearance of this town is pleasing, and the streets are in general composed of substantial buildings. It originated from an abbey founded in 1160 by Walter, the first of the Stewarts, and of which considerable remains still exist. Paisley is a noted seat of the manufacture of shawls, and also of cotton thread, gauzes, and velvets. In the town and Abbey parish, exclusive of the large village of Johnstone, there were lately three cotton spinning-mills, and seven or eight thread-mills; two steam-loom factories; six flour-mills; a calico-printing work; many bleaching works and dye-houses; three breweries and two distilleries; several timber yards; and several iron and brass foundries; an alum and coperas work, a soap work, and a tan-yard. An idea of the present extent of manufactures, in comparison with what it was in the last age, may be obtained from the fact, that, while the whole of the manufactures in 1760 amounted to £15,000, the annual computed value of the goods made in and around the town a few years ago, was a million and a half sterling.

Paisley has been changed by the Reform Acts from a burgh of barony into a parliamentary burgh of the first class, returning one member, divided into wards for municipal purposes, and managed by sixteen councillors, including a provost, four bailies, and a treasurer. Being, though not the county town, the seat of the sheriff court, it is adorned by a large modern castellated building, containing a jail, bridewell, and series of courtrooms; but unfortunately the edifice is placed in a low situation, without reference to salubrity or external influences. Devoted as the inhabitants of Paisley are to the pursuits of business, they have long been honourably remarkable for a spirit of inquiry and a desire for intellectual improvement. The population of Paisley, like that of Glasgow, has experienced a very rapid advance: the inhabitants of the town and surrounding parochial district, in 1821, amounted to 47,003; in 1831, to 57,466.

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James Watt, the improver of the steam-engine, was born in Greenock in 1736; and an institution for literary and scientific purposes, designed to serve as a monument to him, and termed the Watt Institution, has been recently completed. The situation of the town, on the shore of a land-locked basin of the Firth of Clyde, with the mountains of Argyllshire and Dunbartonshire rising on the opposite side, is very fine.

Amongst Scottish towns, Aberdeen ranks next to Edinburgh and Glasgow. It is situated in the county named from it, on a level piece of ground between the effluxes of the rivers Dee and Don, 110 miles from Edinburgh. Its external appearance produces a favourable impression; the principal streets are straight and regular, and the buildings at once substantial and elegant, the chief material used in constructing them being a grey granite found here in great abundance. New Aberdeen, or what is now generally called Aberdeen, is close to the efflux of the Dee, the mouth of which forms its harbour; and Old Aberdeen, where the ancient Cathedral and King's College are situated, is a comparatively small town, about a mile distant, on the bank of the Don. The entire population is about 60,000.

Aberdeen is a city of great antiquity. It became the seat of an university by the erection of King's College in Old Aberdeen, in 1495; Mareschal College, in New Aberdeen, was added in 1593. By the recent reform acts, it is a royal burgh of the first class, divided into districts for municipal purposes, and returning one member to Parliament. Aberdeen is at once a seat of manufactures and a sea-port. There are four great houses engaged in the cotton manufacture, two in the woollen trade, and three in flax-spinning and the weaving of linen. Ship-building, iron-founding, comb-making, rope-making, and paper-making, are also carried on to a great extent. The fisheries of the River Dee, and the export of granite, are sources of considerable income. Of the exports for the year 1836, we may notice, as indicating at once the extent and nature of the Notwithstanding the inland situation of Paisley, its agricultural and manufacturing products of the dismeans of communication are unusually facile and ample. trict, the following items:-Flax manufactures, 30,482 The White Cart, navigable from its efflux into the barrel bulk; cotton manufactures, 16,336 do.; woollen Clyde to the Sneddon in the outskirts of Paisley, pre-manufactures, 20,043 do. ; oats, 69,239 quarters; meal, sents all the advantages of a canal. A canal leaves the southern suburbs of Glasgow, and, passing Paisley, terminates at Johnstone. Paisley is also benefited by the Glasgow and Ayr Railway, which passes it.

In Renfrewshire, also, is situated Greenock, the greatest seaport of the kingdom as far as customhouse receipts form a criterion, these having been, in 1834, £482,138 in gross amount. This town occupies a strip of sloping ground facing towards the Firth of Clyde, at the distance of twenty-four miles from Glasgow. In the seventeenth century it was a mere hamlet; now it is a handsome town of about 30,000 inhabitants, containing harbours and quays of 2200 feet in extent, to which belonged, in 1828, 219 vessels, of 31,929 aggregate tonnage, and employing 2210 men. It is

13,375 bolls; sheep and lambs, 1407; pigs, 3034; butter, 9261 cwts.; eggs, 8120 barrel bulk; pork, 6006 cwts. ; salmon, 7757 do.; granite stones, 1738 tons. The chief imports are, coal, of which there was unloaded, during the same year, 371,914 bolls; lime, cotton, flax, wool, wood, wheat, flour, salt, iron, whale-blubber, and miscellaneous goods, consisting of groceries, &c. There were, in 1836, belonging to the port of Aberdeen, 360 vessels, tonnage 42,080, employing 3110 men.

Aberdeen is entered from the south by Union Street, an elegant double line of buildings, a mile in length and seventy feet wide, in the centre of which a ravine pervaded by a rivulet is crossed by a noble arch of one hundred and thirty-two feet in span, upon a rise of twenty-two. King Street, which opens up the city from

the north, is sixty feet wide, and contains many splendid | ber of which, in 1835, was 5000, amounting to 250 tons. edifices. Besides these two main streets, there is a Perth had, in 1831, a population of 20,016, and it is considerable number of modern squares and terraces. represented by one member in Parliament. The streets of Perth are generally rectangular, and The public buildings are much scattered, but are geThe river is spanned by a subnerally of an elegant appearance. The Public Rooms, well built of stone. erected by the gentlemen of the counties of Banff, stantial bridge, connecting the town with a small suburb Aberdeen, Kincardine, and Forfar, for meetings, danc- on the other side, and forming part of the great north ing assemblies, &c., and partly occupied as a reading- road. The town contains most of the public buildings room, constitute a handsome Grecian structure, front- found in places of similar character and magnitude: ing to Union Street. On the north side of Castle Street, the ancient Church of St John, an elegant suite of stands the Town-House, and in the centre is the Cross, county buildings, an academy, and town-hall, are those In the envia curious structure re-erected in 1822, and containing most entitled to notice within the town. sculptures of eight Scottish sovereigns between James rons, besides a lunatic asylum, there is a structure de1. and James VII. Mareschal College, formerly a signed, when finished, to serve as a national reformaplain old structure, has lately been re-edified in hand- tory for criminals. The beauty and salubrity of Perth some style, chiefly at the expense of the nation. King's are much enhanced by two beautiful pieces of adCollege consists of a handsome but ill-assorted quad- jacent public ground, respectively entitled the North rangle, surmounted by a fine tower and spire. The Inch and South Inch. In the midst of a highly cultitwo colleges are attended by about five hundred stu- vated vale, pervaded by a great river, and with lofty dents, nearly equally divided between them. In Old mountains in the distance, Perth, especially when its Aberdeen are also to be seen the remains of the Cathe-own neat appearance is considered, may be said emidral, consisting of the nave of the original building, nently to deserve its appellation of "the fair city." with two towers at the west end. The ceiling is com- Dumfries, the principal town of Dumfriesshire (71 posed of oak, cut out into forty-eight compartments, miles from Edinburgh and 34 from Carlisle), enjoys a each displaying in strong colours the armorial bear beautiful situation on the Nith, which is navigable to ings of some eminent person, whose name is given be- nearly this point for small vessels. Inclusive of a large suburb on the opposite side of the river, the population low, in Latin, and in the old Gothic character. is about 14,000. Dumfries has a few small manufac tures, 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 5733; 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.

Dundee, situated in Forfarshire, on the shore of the Firth of Tay, may be considered as the fourth town in Scotland, whether in population, or in the importance conferred by wealth. It is a busy sea-port, and the chief seat of the linen manufacture in Scotland, and, indeed, in Great Britain. A series of docks, the erection of which cost £365,000, extend along the shore, where, a century ago, there was only a small quay in the form of a crooked wall. The dues collected for the harbour were, in 1839, £15,996; the tonnage belonging to it, in 1839, was 44,882. In the year ending May 31, 1839, the quantity of hemp and flax imported was 32,462 tons, and the number of pieces of sheeting, bagging, sailcloth, sacking, and dowlas, exported, was 717,070, the value of which was about £1,500,000, being considerably greater than the entire exports from Ireland. In 1839, the number of spinning-mills was 41, and of flax-mills (that is, mills for weaving) 47; besides which there are several machine-factories, candle-factories, sugar-refineries, and establishments for ropemaking and ship-building. This great hive of industry contained, in 1831, a population of 45,355, to which it is probable that 15,000 have since been added. The town is represented in Parliament by one member.

Inverness (155 miles from Edinburgh) is the principal seat of population in the northern counties of Scotland. It is an ancient royal burgh, a sea-port 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 neighbourhood, 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. Dundee contains one handsome place, denominated Amongst objects of interest may be enumerated-the the High Street, in the centre of the town, and several remains of a fort built by Cromwell; Craig-Phadric, an other good streets; but the most elegant and commo- eminence crowned by a vitrified fort; and the moor of dious private dwellings take the form of suburban villas. Culloden (distant five miles), the scene of the fatal battle There is a handsome modern building, serving the pur- which extinguished the hopes of the house of Stuart. The principal towns in Scotland, next to those above poses of an exchange and reading-room, besides which the most conspicuous public buildings are the Town- enumerated, are—in Ayrshire, Kilmarnock, a prospeHouse and a building comprehensively called the Semi-rous seat of the coarser woollen manufacture-populanaries, containing an academy and grammar-school. tion about 20,000; Ayr, the capital of the county, a The High Church of Dundee was an interesting build-thriving market-town, and in a small degree a sea-port ing of the thirteenth century, with a massive tower-population (including dependencies) about 17,000, in 156 feet high; but the whole structure, excepting the Stirlingshire, Stirling, the county town, remarkable steeple, was destroyed by fire in January 1841. Dun-chiefly for its castle, a favourite seat of the Scottish dee 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. Umbrellacloths, ginghams, handkerchiefs, and shawls, are manufactured in Perth in considerable quantities, the number of weavers employed being 1600; and there are a flax spinning-mill and an extensive bleachfield. The river being navigable to this place for small vessels, there is a harbour, chiefly for coasting trade. The salmon fisheries on the river are a source of considerable incoine: the fish are sent to London, in boxes, the num

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 7000: in Fifeshire, Dunfermline, the principal seat of the manufacture of damasks, diapers, and similar fabrics-population about 18,000; Cupar, the county town; Kirkaldy, a busy manufacturing and sea-port town; St Andrews, the seat of an ancient university: in Forfarshire, Montrose and Arbroath, active seats of the linen trade, and likewise sea-ports: in Morayshire, Elgin, an ancient royal burgh and county town,

Printed and published by W. and R. CHAMBERs, Edinburgh. Sold also by W. S. Orr and Co., London.

CHAMBERS'S

INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE.

CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF CHAMBERS'S
EDINBURGH JOURNAL, EDUCATIONAL COURSE, &c.

NUMBER 16.

NEW AND IMPROVED SERIES.

DESCRIPTION OF IRELAND.

PRICE ląd.

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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 favourably situated for foreign commerce than either England or Scotland. It lies between 51° 19′ and 55° 23′ north latitude, and 5° 19′ and 10° 28′ of west longitude from Greenwich; but the greatest length, from Brow Head in the county of Cork, to Fair Head in the county of Antrim, is 306 miles, and the longest transverse line, between similar points in the counties of Mayo and Down, 182 miles. The entire area appears, from the latest and best measurement, to include 31,874 square miles, or 20,399,608 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 32 counties, 252 baronies, and 2348 parishes. For an account of the ecclesiastical divisions and civil polity, we refer to the CONSTITUTION AND RESOURCES OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE.

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 2809 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 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 3410 feet above the level of the sea. Mount Nephin and Croagh Patrick, two conspicuous mountains in Mayo, are respectively 2639 and 2499 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 circumstance 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 and Queen's Counties. In this bog, the beautiful River Boyne takes its rise, flowing thence north-eastward 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,

GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE.--MINERALOGY.

in its course through Longford, Roscommon, and the King's County. All these bogs might be easily reclaimed, could they be drained; but that cannot 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 not-secondary or carboniferous limestone, while the prowithstanding 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 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 jecting 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 north-west coasts; those of Sligo and Kerry west and south-west. The slate districts of Cork and Waterford form the south and south-east, 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 Ireland is described as a thickly wooded country, not in the neighbouring mountains, whence they flow only by her early native writers, but by all those Eng- directly to the sea. The flatness of the interior of Irelish authors who have given any account of the coun- land has been the probable cause of those vast accutry, from the days of Giraldus Cambrensis, about A. D. mulations of alluvial matter called escars. They pos1185. Morrison (1596) and Davis (1605), mention sibly originated at a period when the country was at the forests in which the poor Irish took refuge; and all least partially submerged, from eddies formed by unthe scenery of Spenser's Fairy Queen is drawn from dulations on the surface. The origin of the great tracts the River Bandon, which he celebrates as the "plea- of bog found so generally in the flat country, may be sant Bandon, wood y-crowned," as it is to this day. attributed to the water pent up, as we even now find Boate, in his Natural History, mentions the great ex-it, above the level of the dry country, by gravel hills, tent of wood then standing; but not long did it so stand, which form a continuous ridge, though not of equal for wherever Cromwell's army came, the forests were height, round the edge of the bog. The central district felled, and the country laid bare. In most cases, the of Ireland contains upwards of one million of acres of bogs give ample testimony to the truth of these state- bog, comprehended between Wicklow Head and Galments, some supplying large quantities of fir, which way, Houth Head and Sligo. burns with a pleasant 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 favoured 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.

A vast tract of limestone extends in an almost unbroken line from the north of Cork to the south of Fermanagh, with an intermixture towards 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 grey clayslate, which may be distinctly seen along the shores of Cork and Waterford. In the south-western 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-coloured 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 storeys of those lighthouses which are exposed to violent sea wash.

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