is capable of cultivation. The rocky nature of the soil of the Highlands and the long cold winters prevent tillage except in the valleys and the eastern coast. The abundance of rain is favourable to the growth of trees where shelter is afforded, and masses of forest are to be found in the lower ravines of the Highlands; but the country is less wooded than England-the open moors of the south and the higher regions of the north are treeless.

7. Many of the Highland estates are chiefly valuable for the grazing they furnish for sheep, and for their rental for shooting deer and feathered game. The Lowland Hills feed large numbers of sheep; the straths, glens, and dales afford good pasture for cattle.

8. The climate is similar to that of England; but being further north the summer temperature is not quite so high, and the season of warm weather is shorter. On this account, and partly also from the nature of the soil, oats and barley are more commonly cultivated than wheat. The Scotch farmers are among the best in the world.

9. The fisheries are a very important branch of industry. They employ nearly 30,000 people, and much of the produce is sent to the English, Irish, and Continental markets. Herring, cod, ling, and haddock are taken on all the coasts, but by far the largest number of the fishing-vessels belong to the various towns and villages of the east coast. The Irish coasts are regularly visited by Scotch fishingvessels, which glean a rich harvest there.

LESSON 16.-MANUFACTURES AND COMMERCE.

1. The ancient staple manufactures of Scotland were linen and woollen cloths, which, before the invention of machinery, were home industries scattered over almost

all parts of the country. These home occupations have not quite died out. Hand-knitted stockings employ the women during the long winter evenings in the Highlands

and the Shetlands; embroidery and working in linen provide home work for the peasants of the south-west.

2. The lightly-felted woollen cloths known as tweeds

Glasgow-The Trongate from the Cross, looking west.

are made to a great and increasing extent in the district of the Tweed which gives them their name; linens are manufactured in one or two of the eastern counties.

3. But it is upon the productive coal-fields of the Forth and Clyde that the manufactures flourish with the greatest vigour. Here iron ore is dug, blast-furnaces are at work smelting the ore, iron-foundries, steel-works, and other establishments convert it into machinery and the many useful forms of hardware. Other industries in great variety are carried on in this part of Scotland.

4. Glasgow and the places adjoining it are unequalled for the variety of their manufactures by any town in Britain, except perhaps London. Here are produced cotton, linen, woollen, and silk goods, and machinery and metal goods of almost all descriptions. Glasgow ranks next to Dundee in the manufacture of linen goods, and holds the first place in the woollen manufacture north of the Tweed.

5. Soap, soda, acids, and bleaching-powder are a necessity to a town largely engaged in calico-printing and dyeing; these chemicals Glasgow manufactures on the largest scale. Glass and earthenware are also among the important manufactures of Glasgow.

6. The first steam-boat in Britain was launched on the Clyde in the year 1812, and the river has now the highest reputation among maritime nations for ship-building, iron and steel being almost exclusively used. Besides the numerous yards at Glasgow, Dumbarton, Port-Glasgow, and Greenock have also large ship-building yards.

7. Dundee is the head-quarters of the flax, hemp, and jute manufactures, and coarse linen, sacking, canvas, ropes, and cordage are its products. Paisley is noted for cotton, silk, and woollen goods, and its cotton thread is known all over the world. Shawls, plaids, and scarfs are also made.

8. The preparation of food for shipment to England and abroad, and for use at sea, is a useful and important branch of industry. "Tinned" meats and soups (boiled and preserved in air-tight tins) are prepared in Aberdeen and Leith. The Scotch smoked haddock enjoys a fame which rivals that of the Yarmouth herring. Dundee imports cargoes of oranges for preserving, and its marmalade is known everywhere.

9. With these extensive and varied industries Scotland enjoys her full share of the foreign commerce of the United Kingdom. Her surplus manufactures, minerals, and food produce are exchanged for cotton and the other fibres, for timber, dyes, corn, wine, fruits, and groceries. Good roads and numerous railways traverse the country, and canals have been constructed where needed.

10. Glasgow has the chief foreign trade; that of Greenock being also large, more especially in the import of sugar. Dundee is the port of a busy manufacturing and trading district; Aberdeen is the port of the northeast of Scotland, and Leith the port of Edinburgh and the south-east. These ports have a good general and coasting trade, and the last-mentioned, in its foreign trade, stands next to Glasgow.

LESSON 17.-VIEW OF EDINBURGH.1

1. The scenery of Scotland is very varied in its nature. It has been said that hundreds, even thousands of parishes in England are so much like one another in the soft rich verdure, the rounded hills and fertile tilled lands, that a description of one might answer for many. But in Scotland, so broken is the surface, so much of it is traversed

1 Adapted from Picturesque Europe, by permission of Messrs. Cassell & Co.

by lakes and great arms of the sea, that each district has features of its own.

2. The scenery of the Highlands and the Lowlands is strongly different, whilst the almost unnumbered isles, though often bleak and storm-beaten, have a rough and rugged beauty of their own.

3. Much of this variety of scenery to which we refer is seen in the nature of the hill-ground over which the city of Edinburgh is spread.

4. No city in the world can present a grander or more varied prospect than the gray capital of the north, when viewed from the commanding point, the Calton Hill.

5. When viewed from the base of the Grecian columns which form part of what was to be a monument "To the Glory of God and the Scottish Soldiers who fell in the war with France," one cannot fail to be struck by the wonderful combinations produced there by art, by nature, and by chance. Before the eye stretches the length of Princes Street, till tapered spire and dusky dome seem to blend with the green ridges of Corstorphine.

6. On the one side is all the quick life of to-day; but beyond the valley with its bridges, and the straight bank of the Earthen Mound, rises the wondrous ridge of the ancient city, and the castle on its rock, looming grim and vast. High over the ridgy steep rises St. Giles' airy crown, from where the old city looks down upon the new.

7. Wonderful on winter nights, when the gully is filled with darkness, and out of it rises against the sombre blue sky and the frosty stars, that mass of bulwark and gloom pierced and quivering with numberless lights.

8. A city lies before you, painted by fire on night. High in air a bridge of lights leaps across the chasm; a few emerald lamps, like glow-worms, and a single crimson one, are twinkling about in the railway station.