The British Isles is a traditional term used to identify the group of islands off the northwest coast of Europe consisting of two large islands - Great Britain and Ireland, and the many smaller adjacent islands. These islands form an archipelago with total area of 315,134 km2 (121,674 square miles). The Ireland is made up of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The United Kingdom is made up of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Great Britain consists of England, Scotland and Wales and doesn't include Northern Ireland.
The British Isles have abundant Paleolithic remains dating back to over 250,000 years ago. Neolithic cultivators came from the southeast, while extensive settlements occurred in the Bronze Age producing Stonehenge and other megalithic monuments as witness to the rich cultures. Celtic peoples invaded Britain in the 6th century B.C, giving us lots of hill and river names. They were the precursors of many of the peoples now living in the mountain areas of the west.
Britain is comparatively small, but there is hardly a country in the world where such a variety of scenery can be found in so small a compass. There are wild desolate mountains in the northern Highlands of Scotland - the home of the deer and the eagles - which are as lonely as any in Norway. There are flat tulip fields round the Fens - a blaze of colour in spring, that would make you think you were in Holland. Within a few miles of the dirt and smoke of Manchester and Sheffield you can be in glorious heather covered moors.
The North Sea and the English Channel separate the British Isles from European continent. Once the British Isles were part of the mainland of Europe - the nearest point is across the Strait of Dover, where the chalk cliffs of Britain are only twenty-two miles from those of France. The Atlantic Ocean and the Irish Sea wash the western coast of Great Britain.
The seas round the British Isles are shallow. The North Sea is nowhere more than 600 feet deep, so that if St. Paul's Cathedral were put down in any part of it some of the Cathedral would still be above the water. This shallowness is in some way some advantage. Shallow water is warmer than deep water and helps to keep the shores from extreme cold. It is, too, the home of millions fish, and more than a million tons are caught every year.
You have noticed on the map how deeply indented the coastline is. This indentation gives a good supply of splendid harbours for ships; and you will note, too, that owing to the shape of the country there is no point in it that is more than seventy miles from the sea - a fact that has greatly facilitated the export of manufactures and has made the English race a sea-loving one.
On the north-west the coasts are broken by high rocky. This is especially noticeable in north-west Scotland, where you have long winding inlets, called "lochs", and a grate many islands.
In Scotland you have three distinct regions. There are, firstly, the Highlands, and then there is the central plain or Lowlands. Finally there are the southern uplands, "the Scott country" with their gently rounded hills where the sheep wander. Here there are more sheep to the square mile than anywhere in the British Isles.
In England and Wales all the high land is in the west and northwest. The south-eastern plain reaches the West Coast only at one or two places - at the Bristol Channel and by the mouths of the rivers Dee and Mersey.
In the north you find the Cheviots, separating England from Scotland, the Pennines going down England like a backbone and the Cumbrian Mountains of the Lake District, one of the loveliest (and the wettest) parts of England. In the west is the Cambrian Mountains, which occupies the greater part of Wales.
The south-eastern part of England is a low-lying land with gentle hills and a coast which is regular in outline, sandy or muddy, with occasional chalk cliffs, and inland a lovely pattern of green and gold - for most of England's wheat is grown here - and brown ploughland with pleasant farms and cottages in their midst. Its rich brown soil is deeply cultivated - much of it is under wheat; fruit growing is extensively carried on. A quarter of the sugar used in the country comes from sugar beet grown there, but the most important crop is potato.
The position of the mountains naturally determined the direction and length of the rivers, and the longest rivers, except the Severn and Clyde, flow into the North Sea, and even the Severn flaws eastward or south-east for the greater part of it.
The rivers in Britain are of no great value as waterways - the longest, the Thames, is a little over 200 miles - and few of them are navigable except near the mouth for anything but the smaller vassels.
In the estuaries of the Thames, Mersey, Tyne, Clyde, Tay, Forth and Bristol Avon are some of the greatest ports.
Very little of the present vegetation, which makes the British scene so green and attractive, is natural; it has been modified, if not promoted, by the activity of man. Even before medieval times, forest clearance had spread to the damp oak woods on the intractable clays of southern England, large areas were felled by the Romans to smelt lead and other ores, and much forest clearance was carried on for naval purposes four centuries ago.
The mountains, the Atlantic Ocean and the warm waters if Gulf Stream influence the climate of the British Isles. The climate of Britain is temperate, and although variations are noticeable, the country does not usually experience any extremes of heat or cold. The British never know what their weather is going to be like for two days running. Winter weather can be cloudy, damp and warm, sunny with frost and snow, or frosty and foggy. Summer weather can be chilly and damp, or hot and sticky, or, on a few glorious days each year, brilliantly sunny and warm with a flawless blue sky. |
