File:Our own islands; an elementary study in geography (1907) (14763264854).jpg

Identifier: ourownislandsele00mackrich (find matches)
Title: Our own islands; an elementary study in geography
Year: 1907 (1900s)
Authors: Mackinder, Halford John
Subjects: Great Britain -- Description and travel
Publisher: London, G. Philip
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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brought by ship from those counties to theMersey, and is then carried by barges throughcanals to the Potteries. North-westward from Birmingham a broadbelt of the plain passes between the Welsh Uplandsand the Peak into Cheshire, and so to the south-eastern corner of the Irish Sea. This low passagebetween Wales and the Peak is known as the Mid-land Gate. It is of great importance. Thinkhow costly railway traffic between London andLiverpool would have been if the Moors hadextended right across from the Peak into Wales.As it is, however, one of the most level lines of rail-way in England is the London and North-Westernline from London to Liverpool and Manchester.As you travel through Cheshire on a very clearday, you may see across the plain to your righthand the Pennine Hills, and to your left hand theWelsh Hills (See Plate XXV, p. 258). The Cheshire plain receives much moisturefrom the winds which blow from the neighbouringsea. It has, therefore, very rich meadows and 212 OUR OWN ISLANDS
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Fig. 95.—The Black Country. supports many cattle. Every one has heard ofCheshire cheese. But the wealth of Cheshire con-sists not only of grass and cows. Beneath itsrocks are thick beds of salt. Water is sent down to this salt through borings,and the brine which it forms by dissolving thesalt is pumped up again to the surface. The THE MIDLANDS OF ENGLAND 213 water in the brine is then evaporated by heat, andthe salt is thus recovered. In this way large masses of salt are graduallyremoved from beneath the plain, and hollows areleft and the surface often falls in. Everywherein the towns of this district traces are to be seen ofthe ruin caused by the sinking of the ground.The houses and chimneys are tilted in all directions.Even the floors of the houses are not level,and occa-sionally the tall chimney of a factory collapses.None the less, people go on pumping out the brine,because the salt is valuable. CHAPTER XXXII. THE EAST OF ENGLAND From the Vale of York south-eastward to Nor-folk

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