The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

CHAPTER XIII.
SOUTHERN SCOTLA^'D.
/Wigtown, Ayk, Kirkcvdeeight, Dumiries, Eoxburgh, Selkirk, Berwick, Haddington, Edinbcrgh,
Linlithgow, Peebles, La^'ark, Eenfrew, Bute, Dcmbarton, Clackmannan, Stirling, Kinross,
Fife.)
General Features.
OUTHERN Scotland, by the nature of its soil no less than with
respect to its inhabitants, forms a well-marked geographical pro-
vince. The far-penetrating Solway Firth and the crest of the
Cheviot Hills very distinctly mark its southern boundary towards
England. But the line to the north of the Clyde and the Firth
of Forth, which is supposed to separate the Scottish Lowlands from the Highlands,
is altogether conventional and not so well defined. It passes through the
mountain spurs which descend towards the level country ; it separates men differing
in race, and marks a climatic boundary. Southern Scotland, such as it has
revealed itself in history, coincides pretty nearly with the tract of country enclosed
within the two old Roman walls. This tract is very much inferior to the remainder
of Scotland in area, but far sui'j^asses it in industry and power, and contains two-
thirds of its population.
The contrasts between England and Scotland are manifested even in the
geological structure of the two countries. In Northern England the geological
formations strike north and south, and the Pennine chain runs in the same
direction ; whilst in Scotland the geological formations, far more regular in their
outlines, strike across the country from south-west to north-east, and from sea to
sea. The strike is the same in the Cheviot Hills, no less than in the Carrick
Hills, the Louther Hills, the Moorfoot and Lammermuir Hills, to the south of the
plain extending from the Forth to the Clyde, and in the Grampians and other
ranges of Northern Scotland. But though the mountain chains in the two portions
of Caledonia run in the same direction, the rocks which form them are different.
The carboniferous formation, which lies across the isthmus, contrasts with the
more ancient mountains in Northern Scotland, and through the mineral treasures