The British isles

Preface

I am told there are people who do not care for maps, and I find it hard to believe. — R. L. Stevenson.

This book, which is meant for the fourth and fifth forms, is designed to cover the requirements of the School Certificate examinations of the British universities. It has two distinguishing features, a liberal use of:

(i) Sketch-maps, which are to be gradually built up by the pupils themselves.

(ii) Questions, planned to make the pupil think, interspersed throughout the text.

As, at a casual glance, the book might appear to be an exercise book, it should be made clear that it is a text-book, and contains all necessary information. The author firmly believes in the value of sketch-maps as the shorthand of geography, but feels that it is better, where possible, that students should be encouraged to make their own maps rather than that everything should be done for them. Thus in this book simplified sketch-maps of each region showing coast-line, upland, main rivers, and towns are given; these are easy to copy, and help in drawing the maps has been added where this seemed of value. Students are expected to complete these maps from the information given in the book, and thus make for themselves a summary of each region. For the convenience of the h teacher in checking the accuracy of the work of students on k their sketch-maps, place names have been shown with ' initial letters, except where two or more towns or rivers begin with the same letter. In the first area to be discussed, the Central Lowlands of Scotland, the sketch-map has been completed as an example. It is pointed out, however, in the chapter, that this map would be a great deal better if vi PREFACE

done under ordinary school conditions, with a bigger page and the opportunity to use both ink and pencil, and perhaps a coloured pencil as well.

The second idea is the use of questions in the body of the chapter. There is no need to tell students everything and never allow them to think; why must we continually write such sentences as 'Norwich, in the centre of a farming district, has industries connected with farming, e.g. agricultural implements, starch, mustard, beer'? It is surely better to give the industries and ask the student to draw the connection. Questions of geographical fact are not asked, unless the information has been given earlier in the book. The author feels that with the guidance which has been given the students will find no difficulty in answering the questions ; he can only say that all have been used with success in his own teaching of Great Britain and Ireland. The questions may, obviously, either be answered orally in the course of a lesson or written as 'prep. 5

Photographs have been included where it is felt that illustration would enrich the general idea of a region.

The examining bodies of the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, London, Bristol, and those of the Northern Universities Joint Board and .the Central Welsh Board, have kindly given permission for the use of School Certificate questions set by them. These have been added at the end of the appropriate chapter. The following abbreviations have been used : Northern Universities Joint Board, N.U.J.B. ; and the Central Welsh Board, C.W.B.

I desire to thank Miss S. W. Pearson, B.Sc, Mr. H. L. Constable, B.A., and Mr. H. W. Marsh, of J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd., for reading the book in manuscript, and for their many valuable criticisms and suggestions. In the past teachers and students have written to the author about his books : he can only repeat that criticisms will be welcomed.

Contents

CHAPTER

I. Position, Physical Features, the Continental Shelf.

page

Chapter I Position, Physical Features, The Continental Shelf, Tides, Fishing

The British Isles, two large and over five hundred smaller islands off north-west Europe, lie in a io° net, that is, most of the land is between 50 N. and 6o° N. latitude, and between o° and io° W. longitude. The total area is but 120,000 square miles, only 3 per cent of the total expanse of Europe. This insignificance in size is often not realized : Ireland or Scotland has about the same area as Lake Superior in North America, and Eire is the same size as Tasmania or Ceylon. It will be shown later, on page 8, that historical factors have altered the significance of the position of the British Isles.

This book is a description of present-day conditions, but, to understand these, it is necessary not only to consider events in recent times, but also some which happened millions of years ago, the geological history of the British Isles.

The English Channel and the North Sea are shallow ; if, for example, St. Paul's Cathedral were placed on the sea floor it would not be completely submerged, and there are some large areas, called banks, where the sea is as little as 100 ft. deep. The best known of these is the Dogger Bank (dogge is Dutch for cod). Diagram 1 shows this shallow water, and a section shows that the real edge of the Continent of Europe lies some 50-100 miles to the west of Ireland. The British Isles are said to lie on a continental shelf; they have been separated from the Continent by subsidence* of the intervening land. It is thus to be expected that the main surface features of Great Britain and Ireland will correspond with those on the Continent. Diagram 1 shows what the drainage of the British Isles may have been before this subsidence took place : a much extended Rhine gathering up left-bank tributaries from eastern Great Britain, an enlarged Seine draining southern England, and a river flowing south between Ireland and Wales.

Diagram i. The Continental Shelf

In other parts of the world severe earthquakes sometimes cause heavy loss of life and considerable damage. These earth movements to-day are mild and insignificant compared with activities in the past, before man appeared on the earth, when gigantic quakes buckled and folded the surface rocks, and slowly formed great mountain systems. The world to-day is enjoying a period of comparative quiet. There was a number of such periods of mountain building, and three of these have affected large areas in Great Britain

PHYSICAL FEATURES 3

and Ireland. The oldest of them is called the Caledonian because it was during this time that the Scottish Highlands and the Southern Uplands of Scotland were formed. Diagram 2, however, shows that the mountains of this j^/T NOR.WAY

HM LAVAS

++ GEOLOGICAL SIMIUAMTIE.3

BMTTANIf

Diagram 2. A Simplified Map showing the Main Areas affected during the Caledonian, Armorican, and Alpine Periods of Mountain Building

period are found not only in Scotland but in the Lake District, Wales, and north-western Ireland, and that the ranges lie usually in a N.E.-S.W. direction. It is thus sometimes said that the 'grain' of the Scottish Highlands is N.E.-S.W. Later came the Armorican period, so called from an , old Celtic name for Brittany in north-western France, and it will be seen that the direction of the ranges in this case is usually from west to east, as in southern

Ireland, South Wales, Dartmoor, Exmoor, and the Mendips. In the Pennines, however, which were probably formed at this time, the direction of the fold is from north to south. It will be noticed that, in Great Britain, these areas of mountain building are in the north and west. Some part of these upland areas always seems to have been dry land despite many changes in the level of the land compared with the sea. The south and east, however, have been many times submerged, and this part was covered with sediments, sands, clays, chalk, and limestone. Tennyson, whose poetry often embodied the scientific ideas which were being born during the nineteenth century, expressed it :

There where the long street roars, hath been The stillness of the central sea.

But these rocks of the south-east are similar to those in France and Belgium : perhaps the most striking example of this may be seen by an observer on the chalk cliffs of Dover who, on a clear day, can see the chalk cliffs of Calais across the narrow stretch of water which has saved Britain from invasion for nearly a thousand years. These rocks were affected during another period of mountain building, called the Alpine, because it was during this time that the Alps and many other of the great folded mountains of the world were formed. The north and west, farther from the centre of mountain building, were almost untouched except that lavas welled up through cracks then formed. The plateau of Antrim in north-eastern Ireland is of lava, the Giant's Causeway is made of six-sided columns of basalt, and there is a similar formation in Staffa, an island in the Hebrides. Skye and Mull also contain volcanic material.

But not only have the British Isles suffered changes of this kind; there have been, in addition, many changes of climate. In Carboniferous times, about 250,000,000 years ago, so called by geologists because in some of the layers then deposited coal is found, the climate was hot and wet.

PHYSICAL FEATURES

HIS

Much of the land was swampy, and it was the vegetation of the swamps which was later crushed by sea sediments to form coal. Later in geological history the climate was hot and dry, and Britain was a desert. The land, as so often in deserts, was red in colour, and the reddish soils of parts of the Midlands are a legacy of this age. Much more recently, probably about one million years ago, the climate became bitterly cold, and ice, forming first - on the higher land of the north and west, gradually spread down the mountain sides and covered the lower land. All Ireland and Great Britain as far south as a line joining the Thames and the Bristol Channel were affected, the east of Great Britain mainly by an ice sheet centred in the highlands of Scandinavia. There were intervals, probably three, when the climate became warmer and the ice melted, but it was not until some ten to fifteen thousand years ago that this glacial period ended. The effects of the ice age will be discussed later in the chapter. Diagram 3 shows the broad division that may be made of Great Britain. North and west of the 'Exe-Tees' line are the old hard rocks, the highland zone, while south and east of this line are the newer softer rocksi There are lowlands in the highland zone, but the broad distinction remains true. The south-east is not a flat, monotonous

L.OWUMS& towE, HIGHLAND 3)0.

Diagram 3. The Highland and Lowland Zones of Great Brit aim lowland, for the harder chalk and limestone have not been worn away as easily as the softer clays, and thus the chalk and limestone form lines of low hills or of plateau country. The existence of this highland zone not only affects the way of life of people to-day, but has had a profound effect on the history of Britain.

As the ice sheet gradually retreated from Great Britain the country was occupied by people of Middle and Late Old Stone Age culture from the Continent; they came probably before the separation of this island from the mainland.

Later two main streams of settlers with superior cultures came from the Continent. The earlier, coming along the coasts of Spain and western France, reached Ireland, western England, and western Scotland. It is called megalithic (Greek megas =grea.t, lithos= stone) from the great stone circles and avenues they built, of which Avebury and Stonehenge are the best known. Their chiefs were buried in stone huts over which earth was heaped to form huge mounds or 'barrows.' The other, known as Beaker Folk, from the shape of the earthenware pots they used, came, much later, from central Europe, across the North Sea. It may be wondered why they did not come the shortest way, but it is probable that the tides of the newly formed Straits of Dover were too violent for these early navigators. These two peoples spread over England.

The earliest inhabitants of Britain were food-gatherers, but these later arrivals brought improved tools and a knowledge of agriculture. Thus developed the later Old Stone Age and Bronze Age cultures in which the communities ceased to be self-sufficient, agriculture and the crafts developed, and long-distance overseas trade began. When bronze implements were first used in England is uncertain, but it was somewhere between 2000 and 1500 B.C. Settlement in England was principally on the chalk and limestone hills of the south and east. Early man objected to

PHYSICAL FEATURES the dense forest and water-holding soil of the lowlands and ? moreover, these were the home of the wolf, boar, bear, and wild ox. The soil of the open and more lightly wooded hills could be worked by primitive implements, and here, too, early man avoided the ague and rheumatism of

S'STONEHENGE.

UMtSTONE.

CHAUK the damp lowlands.

Qiiestioni. Stonehenge and Avebury, shown on diagram 4, were important^tribal gathering places. What can be noticed about their position?

Some time about 1000- 800 B.C. the Belgae, an ironusing people, introduced their heavy, ox-drawn, ironcoultered plough, and some clearing of the lowlands began. It is known that Caesar was attracted by the wheat-lands of southern England. The Romans extended this lowland cultivation, but it was the Angles, Jutes, and Saxons of the sixth and seventh centuries a.d., men used to working heavy land, who, with their heavy plough drawn by eight oxen, made the first considerable inroad into the forest and marsh. The Romans, who were an upper class of administrators and traders, had lived side by side with the earlier inhabitants, who became ' Romanized ' especially to the south and east of a line from the Wash to Plymouth. The Saxons, on the other hand, who came to conquer and decided to stay, either drove the Celts before them or isolated them in enclaves. In fact, one may compare the action of the t So MU$.

Diagram 4. The Chalk and Limestone Areas of South-eastern England

Saxons to the Celts with that of the English to the Red Indians in North America.

Qiiestion 2. (i) The Romans occupied the whole of what is now England; they did not conquer Wales,

although they had some military posts to protect miners, and in Scotland only in the south was their control felt, and that only for a short time.

Ireland remained outside the Roman Empire.

What can be said about the extent of the Roman conquest of Britain?

(ii) Diagram 5 shows the extent of the occupation of Britain by Angles, Saxons, and Jutes in the middle of the eighth century. What can be said about this conquest?

It was mentioned in the first paragraph that although since historical times the British Isles have

Diagram 5. The British Isles in the

Middle of the Eighth Century

(according to Bede)

been two large and a number of smaller islands, historical factors have altered the significance of this statement. Two thousand years ago, when the Mediterranean Sea justified its name, and was in the middle of the important lands, the British Isles were on the fringe of the then known world. To the Romans, Britain was an outpost of empire, and the mountainous areas of Wales and Scotland were their north-west frontier inhabited by turbulent tribes, as the north-west frontier of India is to-day. The great change in the world

CONTINENTAL SHELF 9

position of the British Isles came with the discovery of America ; Britain was no longer on the edge of the known lands, but in the middle, on the routes between the 'old' and 'new' worlds. The Mediterranean Sea became, as a result of this discovery, together with that of the Portuguese route to India via the Cape of Good Hope, a backwater until the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869.

The effects of glaciation are important. On the higher land of Scotland and elsewhere, the slowly moving ice removed the surface layers and, to-day, large areas are almost without soil and thus are useless for farming. It must be realized that the formation of soil, which means the gradual alteration of the surface layers of any rock, under the action of the weather, is a slow process and, if the rocks are hard, a very slow one. In lower areas, e.g. in most of the plain of east England, as far south as the Thames and in the west Pennine plain, the soil removed from the higher land was deposited. Were it not for these glacial drifts the author would not now be sitting in a house in Norfolk writing this book, for the district would be under the sea. In East Anglia much of the land covered by these drifts is called boulder clay, from the stones found in it. This clay, which has been mixed with the chalk of the neighbourhood, produces a fertile soil. Again, a geological map, which indicates the 'solid' geology or main rock structure, shows the plain of Ireland as carboniferous limestone, but, in fact, much of the plain is covered to a great depth by glacial deposits. A striking feature in glaciated areas is the Ushaped valley caused by the smoothing of the sides by ice and the truncating of spurs, and this may be contrasted with the V-shaped valley of areas unaffected by ice action.

The continental shelf is important for its effects on tides and on fishing. The main cause of the tides is the attraction of the moon on the oceans, and the tidal waves so caused move because the earth is rotating. The sun also affects the tides, and thus at full moon and new moon, when the io THE BRITISH ISLES

attraction of the sun aids that of the moon, high tides are higher and low tides are lower. These fortnightly high tides are called spring tides, and at half-moon, when the sun and moon are working in opposition, is the period of neap tides. The tides of north-west Europe may be thought of as a wave coming in from the Atlantic. In the open ocean high tide is but two or three feet, but when the wave reaches the coast the effect of the continental shelf is to increase high tide to twenty feet, or even more, above low tide. High tides occur at intervals of about 12 hours 25 minutes.

Question 3. Height of spring tide in feet : Scilly Isles, 16; Lundy Island, 27; Cardiff, 37; Avonmouth, 40; Sharpness (12 miles south-west of Gloucester on the east of the Bristol Channel), 42. Draw a simple sketch-map inserting these facts. What can be noticed? Bearing in niind the shape of the Bristol Channel what conclusion can be drawn?

The extra depth of water at high tide means that ships can come farther up the estuaries than they otherwise could. In the many tiny ports round the coast small ships, usually coastal vessels, come in at high tide, moor up at the wharves, and may be resting on the bottom at low tide. In the bigger ports the docks are often enclosed basins ; for example, on the Thames, where the difference between high tide and low tide is some twenty feet, big ships come up river at high tide, enter the docks, and the dock gates are then shut.

Question 4. The movement of water in and out of an estuary is valuable in another way. Explain. Remember (a) that all rivers carry mud, and (b) what happens when dirty water in a wash-basin is not swilled about when the stopper is pulled out.

TIDES ii

Question 3 shows the great increase of high tide in a narrowing estuary, and this sometimes results in a low wall of water moving up a river at high tide. In the Severn this is called the bore and, in the Trent, the eagre; the level of the water may be raised five or six feet in a few minutes.

The continental shelf is also important because fish are only found in large numbers where the water is comparatively shallow. Round the British Isles most of the fishing is done in waters which are less than 100 fathoms deep (see diagram 1), although some fishing does take place in water up to 250 fathoms deep. Although fish are cannibalistic in that they feed on fish smaller than themselves, ultimately the number of fish in a sea depends on the supply of minute plants and sea animals which are drifted by ocean currents, and hence are called plankton, from a Greek word meaning wandering. Fish may be divided into two main classes, those which normally live near the surface, such as herring and mackerel, which move in shoals, and those living near the sea-floor like sole, plaice, cod, or hake. But even surface fish, herring and others, spawn on the sea-bed, so that obviously the depth of the sea is important to both classes of fish. The movement of water caused by both tides and the ' westerlies ' renews the supply of plankton, and may be compared with the changing of the water in a bowl of goldfish.

Question 5. The two other great fishing grounds of the world are the seas off (i) Newfoundland, (ii) Japan. What similarities can be noticed between these and the seas off north-west Europe in (a) depth, (b) latitude, (c) general position?

Most fish are caught in one of three ways — by trawl, by drift-net, or by line. Some two- thirds of the million tons of fish brought annually to British ports are caught by trawler. A trawl is a bag-shaped net, which is dragged along at or near to the sea-bed by a slow-moving trawler. This method is thus used for fish which live near the sea-floor.

Question 6. The floor of the North Sea is relativelyfree from rocks, for it is covered with sands and mud. What advantage is this to a trawler?

Nearly all trawlers to-day are driven by steam, and they fish not only in home waters, for some of the bigger ones may go as far north as Iceland or as far south as the coasts of Portugal and north-west Africa. On these occasions it is necessary to take many tons of fuel and ice, and the trawlers return home with perhaps fifty tons of fish.

Fish living near the surface are caught by drift-net. The net is about ioo ft. long by 40 ft. deep. The top of the net is about 10 ft. below the surface, and is kept there by lines attached to the net with corks at the top. The net is kept vertical by small weights at the bottom of the net. Nets are used in large numbers, perhaps eighty or ninety, attached to one another, and the ship is allowed to drift with wind and tide, hence the name drifter. The gills of the fish, e.g. herring, mackerel, become entangled in the mesh of the net.

Qiiestion 7. (i) The size of the mesh of drift-nets varies, e.g. it is 1 in. for herring. Why is this?

(ii) What would be found in a trawl when hoisted? What would be found in a drift-net?

[Remember that surface fish travel in shoals.]

Fishing by line is unimportant compared with the trawl or the drift-net. It is used to catch the larger fish, cod, haddock, halibut, although these are also caught by trawl. The lines may be miles long and may contain thousands of baited hooks.

It remains to mention some minor aspects of the fishing industry. Oysters are bred in the shallow mud-flats on either side of the Thames estuary, off Whitstable (Kent) and at the mouth of the Colne (Essex) . Crabs and lobsters

FISHING are caught in 'pots,' large baskets with a hole at the top. It is easy for a crab or lobster to get into the pot to eat the bait, but very difficult to get out again. The pots are sunk to the bottom of the sea with a buoy to mark their position.

Diagram 6. Sketch-map for Question 8 (Fishing grounds)

Lobsters are caught off the rocky shores of south-west England, and also in the Orkneys and Hebrides. Crabs are caught mainly off north-east England.

Question 8. Copy diagram 6 on a larger scale and show the following. [As the idea of the map is to show the main fishing grounds the outlines of Great Britain, Ireland, and Iceland may be copied in the simplified form suggested.] Herring off Orkneys and Shetlands in June, off the east Scottish coast and the north-east i4

English coast in August and September, and off Yarmouth, Lowestoft, and the Thames estuary in October and November ; cod Iceland and the North Sea ; haddock north of North Sea ; halibut Iceland ; hake south Ireland ; skate and sole western England. There is no need to state the time of the year with the fish living near the sea-floor as they are caught throughout the year.

#n

.o IoomlS.

¥ABER.DEE.N

[FLttTWOOD/

•NJSR.IMSBY j5

^YARMOUTH LOWESTOFT*

W^IUFOKD HAVEN /

Diagram 7. The Important Fishing Ports

It was thought at one time that shoals of herring moved southwards in the North Sea from June onward. This has been proved incorrect, for the fish which appear off Yarmouth and Lowestoft in October and November are not of the same type as those seen off the Shetlands earlier in the year.

Fresh fish is perishable, and only those ports with good railway connections to the densely peopled areas are important; diagram 7 shows the main ones. The ports are

FISHING 15

usually as near the fishing grounds as possible, and are not far up estuaries as are so many cargo ports. Of these fishing ports Hull and Grimsby are pre-eminent for cod, Yarmouth and Lowestoft for herring, whereas Fleetwood and Milford are important for hake. The fish landed is not, however, only for home consumption, for salted herring are exported to the countries round the Baltic Sea, and salted cod to countries in south Europe. Because the chief fishing grounds for herring vary throughout the season the drifters use ports in the north in June and July and then, later on, ports farther south. Scots fisher girls, who gut the fish before it is packed with salt in barrels ready for export, follow the drifters southwards, working at ports in the north in early summer and at Yarmouth and Lowestoft in October and November. There are also other 'camp-followers' of the industry, salesmen, coopers, and curers.

Question 9. There is a considerable demand for fish in the countries of southern Europe. What are the reasons? [Bear in mind (a) the depth of the Mediterranean Sea, (b) the religion of the majority of the people of southern Europe.]

Chapter II

The quip of foreigners that the Englishman's only topic of conversation is the weather is an indication of its day-to-day variability. Although the month of January may have days with arctic conditions and a snow-covered landscape, followed by days like those of spring ; or July may have a heat-wave that merits the word tropical, it is still true that the main feature of the British climate is its equability. Britain is not a country of disastrous floods, long periods of drought, or seasons of great heat or cold. Climate has been termed average weather, and thus these daily changes, often so disconcerting to the foreigner, are hidden when dealing with mean figures.

The main points to be discussed are temperature in winter and summer, and rainfall, both the season and the amount. The mean temperature figure of a day is taken as the average of the maximum and minimum of that day, while the mean of a month is the average of the daily means. When it is said that the mean January temperature of London is 39 F., this figure has been obtained by taking the average over a long period, usually at least thirty years, of all the January means of London. Mean figures are useful in that they show the main similarity or difference between two places, but they have the disadvantage that they mask not only the daily changes but also the range between day and night. Even in an area as small as that of the British Isles the range in the east is greater than in the west. Great Britain and Ireland have the usual equable temperatures, that is, the small range between winter and summer, associated with island climates. Water warms up more slowly than land, but also cools more slowly, and so

CLIMATE AND WEATHER i 7

islands do not have the extremes of temperature which occur in the interior of great land masses in temperate latitudes.

Question i. Mean January temperatures in ° F. [See also diagram 8 of January temperatures.]

Diagram 8. Mean January Temperatures

(a) Valentia (south-west Ireland), 44; Cardigan (Wales), 42; Worcester, 39; Bedford, 38.

(b) Bedford, 38; Sheffield, 38; Stirling, 38.

(c) Exeter, 4.2 ; Cardigan, 42, Holyhead, 42 ; south of Lewis (an island in the Hebrides), 42.

What conclusion can be drawn? [Note that the towns in (a) are on a wcst-to-east line, whereas those of (b) and (c) are on a north-to-south line.]

The British Isles are not only islands ; they are islands on the west side of a continent, which makes their position more fortunate still. The prevalent wind in these latitudes is from the south-west, and this blows warm water, the

Diagram 9. The Gulf Stream and the North Atlantic Drift

North Atlantic Drift, which keeps the wind warm (diagram 9). In winter when the sun is low in the sky, its strength weak, and its time above the horizon short, it is this warmed south-west wind which is the main factor in deciding temperatures. 'Apt alliteration's artful aid' makes this easy to remember : the west is the warmer in winter. The answers to Question 1 will have shown that latitude is not a deciding factor; London is as cold as Edinburgh, but north-west Scotland is warmer than London. The warmest parts in winter are the extreme south-west of Ireland and the south-west of England. These mean differences between west and east are only a few degrees, but they are perceptible and of importance in farming. In the lowlands of