570
vales more warm. The elevation of those southern tracts is very great, the site
of the village of Leadhills being 1280 feet above the sea level; and the top
of one of the Lowthers, a ridge near that hamlet, has been found to be 1170
feet higher, making the summit of that mountain 2450 feet above the level
of the sea. Next in elevation to the Lowthers is Culter Fell, which rises to
the height of 2330 feet above the sea level. Tinto is the last great hill on
the south, being 2236 feet above the sea level, and the general height of
the arable land about its base is from 600 to 700 feet above the same
level (n). From Tinto, looking northward, the face of the country is
softened down from that height of 650 feet to gentle elevations and gradual
depressions. On the western limit of this county, Cairn Table rises to the
height of 1650 feet above the level of the sea. Yet what are those eleva-
tions to the Himalayan mountains of India, or the Cordilleras of Southern
America!
But this shire cannot be considered as a level country, however cele-
brated may be the Vale of Clyde. The upper ward, which may be deemed
three-fifths of the whole superficies, is mostly mountainous, or at least hilly,
and moorish, and from the nature of the soil and the elevation of the
surface, cannot be deemed capable of much agricultural improvement. At
the commencement of the middle ward, the loftiness of the land is consider-
ably diminished, while the declivity continues to fall towards the north-west.
The surface is everywhere diversified by frequent inequalities, so as to
leave no level space except the valleys along the river. The height of the
cultivated land of this middle ward may be fairly regarded as from 250 to
300 feet above the sea level, while the town of Hamilton, which is situated
on the low ground, may still be considered as from 100 to 140 feet above
the same level. But of this ward, the mosses of 42,000 acres, which are
nearly one-third of the whole, show a sterility of such extent as scarcely any
labour is sufficient to subdue.
The lower ward is a very limited district, but having the city of Glasgow
with 144,000 or 150,000 busy people comprehended in it, this circumstance
alone contributes greatly to its fruitful ness, however barren it may be from
nature.
This country, with a climate damp and changeful, abounds with mineralas
which may supply with mitigation the unkindness of the clime. It abounds
(n) The town of Lanark, on the east side of the Clyde, eight miles below Tinto, is 656 feet above
the sea level. Those altitudes were ascertained by Mr. William Forrest, who completed a survey of
this county in 1813, and has published a fine map of it on a large scale.