The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

GEOLOGY AND SURFACE FEATUEES. 11
bleak and treeless, as are those in the north, but they yield copper, tin, and lead,
and between them lie broad pasture-lands and fruitful valleys.*
A broad expanse of comparatively level land separates the barren jjalajozoic
mountain ranges of England and Wales from the uplands and plains which occupy
the entire eastern part of the country. Spreading over the whole of Central
England, this level tract extends along the eastern foot of the Pennine range to
the coast of Yorkshire, merges on the west into the wide plain of Cheshire and
Lancashire, and can be traced southwards into the valley of the Severn, and beyond,
through the vale of Taunton and other low-lying districts, to the south coast of
Devonshire. Nearly the whole of this extensive region is occiipied by the sand-
stones, limestones, clays, and marls of the triassic and liassic formations, the
harder of these rocks often rising into minor escarpments facing westwards, and
overlooking rich undulating meadow lands and cultivated fields.
On the east these plains and undulating grounds are bounded by an oolitic
limestone range, which traverses England from the coast of Dorsetshire to the
estuary of the Tees, presenting a bold escarjDment towards the west, on ascending
which we find ourselves upon an undulating table-land, mostlj^ occupied by sheep
pastures. The Cotswold Hills, which bound the vale of Gloucester, and the
moorlands of Yorkshire, far away in the north, both belong to this formation.
Around the "Wash it disappears beneath the alluvial flats of the Bedford level, but
everywhere else it dips below the chalk, which forms so prominent a feature in
the physical geography of South-eastern England.
The chalk, like the oolitic limestone, generally presents a bold escarpment
towards the west. It is most extensively developed on the plain of Salisbury.
From this, as a centre, the ranges of chalk diverge in different directions. The
South Downs stretch along the coast of the Channel as far as Beachy
Head. The North Downs bound the valley of the Thames on the south, and
terminate in the cliffs of Dover. A third range extends to the north-eastward,
forming the Marlborough Downs, the Chiltern Hills, and the East Anglian
Heights, which terminate with Hunstanton Cliff, at the mouth of the "W'ash, but
once again rise to the north of that shallow bay in the wolds of Lincoln and
York.
Clays, sands, limestones, and crag of the tertiary age overlie the chalk in the socalled
basins of London and Hampshire ; but between the North and South Downs
the chalk has been removed by denudation, and the subjacent strata which occupy
the district known as the Weald have been laid bare. Bounded by escarpments of
* Culminating summits of mountain groups of Great Britain :
Northern Highlands, Ben WyTis 3,422 feet.
Grampians, Ben lS!'e%'i3 4,406 „
„ Ben Muich (Mac) Dhui 4,296 „
Hills of South Scotland, Merrick 2,764 „
„ „ Cheviot 2,669 „
Pennine Chain, Cross FeU 2,928 „
Cambrian mountains, Sea FeU 3,230 „
"Welsh mountains, Snowdon 3,590 „
Mountains of Devonshire and Cornwall, Yes Tor (Dartmoor) . . . 2,077 ,,
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