FIFESHIRE is bounded by the river Tay on the north,, the German Ocean on the east, the Frith of .Forth on the south, and on the west by the coun ties of Kinross, Perth, and Clackmannan. Its me dium length, from east to west, is about 36 miles, and its breadth, from north to south, 14; so that its area is 504 square miles, or 322,560 English acres. About four-fifths of this may be consider ed as fit for cultivation, and the remainder consists of hills, mosses, and moors, with roads and planta tions.
This county, which is situated on the south-east corner of the middle peninsula of Scotland, is, for the most part, composed of low lying grounds, though little of it is flat or level. There is a pleasing va riety of hill and valley in every direction. It is di vided into two parts by a tract of high ground, which comprehends the Lomond Hills on the west, and from thence stretches forward almost in a direct line till it approach within a few miles of the sea. The highest of these hills is West Lomond, which is 1721 feet above the level of the sea ; Largo Law, on the east, is 952, and Kelly Law 810. The rivers Eden and Leven throw it into three divisions, the northern, between the Eden and the Tay, the middle, between the Eden and the Leven, and the southern, between the Leven and the Frith of Forth. Along the Frith of Forth, from the eastern to the western boundary of the county, the land rises gently, and has no great elevation above the sea. The soil here is generally very fertile, for a breadth of about three miles, a deep rich loam, or clay, and sometimes loam with gravel. Beyond this, a cold poor clay prevails, lying, for the most part, on sandstone, which extends northward to the high ground on the south of the Eden. In this district there are extensive tracts of moss and moor. Farther north, on both sides of the Eden, and from the mouth of that river westward to Perthshire, there is a rich valley called the How of Fife, which spreads out as it approaches the sea in to a considerable tract of very productive land. A
range of high grounds, a continuation of the Ochills, intervenes between this valley and the Tay on the north ; yet as the soil lies upon whinstone it is in many plaoes fertile, and often deeper and richer on the acclivities than at their bottom.
As no part of Fifeshire is nine miles from the sea, the climate is mild and the harvests early. Snow seldom lies long. Yet from the direction of its hills, from east to west, it is much exposed to the easterly . winds, which often check vegetation in the spring months; and hoar frosts are not unfrevent so late as the middle of June. The heaviest rains are from the south-west, the south-east, and the and the winds from the two last points bring the greatest falls of snow. The driest and most steady weather comes from the west, north-west, and east.