. The earth and its inhabitants .. . table-land is intersected by picturesque valleys, and termi-nates in bold cliffs. From its summits we may witness the continuous onslaught * Dufrenoy et Elie de Beaumont, Voyage metallurgique en Angleterre. 76 THE BRITISH ISLES. of the sea upon the rocks of Ilfracombe, whilst in the south the land gradually slopesdown towards the wide semicircular bay bounded by Start Point and the Bill ofPortland. Human habitations are few and far between on this plateau, beingconBned to hamlets and lonely farms hidden away in the hollows. The slopesof the hills are covere
. The earth and its inhabitants .. . table-land is intersected by picturesque valleys, and termi-nates in bold cliffs. From its summits we may witness the continuous onslaught * Dufrenoy et Elie de Beaumont, Voyage metallurgique en Angleterre. 76 THE BRITISH ISLES. of the sea upon the rocks of Ilfracombe, whilst in the south the land gradually slopesdown towards the wide semicircular bay bounded by Start Point and the Bill ofPortland. Human habitations are few and far between on this plateau, beingconBned to hamlets and lonely farms hidden away in the hollows. The slopesof the hills are covered with heather or short herbage, whilst their summitsare occupied by sepulchral mounds or ancient entrenchments. The QuantockHills, to the east of Exmoor, are the only part of England where the stag stilllives in a wild state. A second mountain mass, the Dartmoor, rises to the west of the river Exe intothe region of pasture, culminating in the Yeo Tor (2,077 feet), and High Wilhays Fig. 41.—Lands End and the Longships (2,040 feet). The nucleus of this mountain group consists of granite, and therivers which rise in it diverge in all directions, feeding the Teign and Exe inthe east; the Taw and Torridge in the north ; the Tamar, or Tamer, in the west;the Tavy, Avon, and Dart in the south. The coast-line projects far to the south,where the spurs of Dartmoor approach it, as if the floods of the ocean had beenpowerless in their attacks upon the rocks which envelop this nucleus of Point, the extreme promontory, is thus named because vessels take theirdeparture from it when about to venture upon the open ocean. Two estuariesbound the uplands which culminate in Dartmoor, viz. that of the Ex in the east,and that of the Tamar, which debouches upon many-armed Plymouth Sound, in THE COENISH PENINSULA. 77 the west. Dartmoor, within its proper limits, covers an area of 200 squaremiles, and its population is as sparse as that of Exmoor. Many of its valleys,where v
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectgeography, bookyear18
