SCOTLAND occupies the northern portion of the island which constitutes Great Britain, and is divided from England by a line which is partly physical and fixed, partly political and conventional. To the west this physical division is the water of the Solway Firth, se parating the ancient kingdom of Galloway from Cum berland. Where this terminates, it pursues the course of the Esk to Longtown, and thence towards the junc tion of the Liddel, which it then follows as far as Kershopefoot. Hero it diverges southward to follow the Kershope water ; and very shortly the physical boundary disappears, as the political line then becomes for a space indefinite, or nearly undefinable by other natural marks than the courses of a few small streams which descend from the hill country to hold their courses towards England.
A fresh physical line is now taken up along the southern declivity of the hills, commencing with Peel Fell and ranging along the Carter Fell, Blackhall hill, and the Cheviot to Shorthope. Here the boundary once more becomes difficult of definition, as it crosses the courses of the streams, and equally despises the forms of the land. Thus it is scarcely to be defined in words but by the positions of a few farms or vil lages, consisting of East Hamilton, Cowsnout, Kirk mains, and Haggies hall, meeting the Tweed near Hadden on the one side of that river, and Birgham on the other. The Tweed itself then becomes the boundary to the sea, with reservation of the shadowy political distinctions of Berwick.
General Position and Extent.
Excluding the islands, Scotland lies between the latitudes of 37' and 42', and longitudes 1° 47' and 6° 7' west. Its greatest length on any one meri dian is from the Mull of Galloway to Farout Head, amounting to 275 miles ; but the longest interval be tween any two of its parallels of latitude, is between the former point and Dunnet Head, reaching to 284 miles. The greatest breadth is from Buchaness to Apple cross and is 147 miles; and the least is from the Firth of Dornoch to Loch Broom, where the interval is only 36 miles. In other places the breadth varies exceed ingly, as, in the north, it is only 71 miles, between Assynt and Nosshead, and in the south between St.
Abb's Head and the point of Knap 134.
The territorial surface of the main land is about 26,286 English square miles, of which about 290 are fresh water lakes.
The islands form an important part, however, of the territorial surface of the kingdom, as they are nu merous and extensive. They are easily divided, ac cording to the ancient Norwegian division, into north and south islands, or Nordereys and Sudereys ; the former comprising the Shetland and Orkney isles, the latter the western isles or CEbudx, corruptly called Hebrides. Including these, the extreme latitude reaches to 61° 13', and the extreme longitude west to 8° 18'. The total area of the islands is computed at 3212 square miles, causing the whole land of Scotland to reach to 29,498 square miles exclusive of the water.
Counties.
In enumerating the counties it will be convenient to exhibit them in the form of a list, together with the contents of each.
That we may condense a few of the important mat ters which may be considered as appertaining to, or connected in some way with the political geography of Scotland, we shall here throw them into the brief and convenient form of tables.
With respe'ct to the principal towns, Edinburgh, Perth, Glasgow, &cc. we may refer to our articles on those particular subjects, as we may to several of county and other articles for information so fully given that we need not repeat even a sketch here.
Thus also on the subject of our coal mines, apper taining to the department of commerce and manu factures, we may refer to our article MINEs, as we may also for our canals to our article on inland NA VIGATION.
In conformity with the system adopted regarding the representation of the Scottish peerage, the 16 peers are elected for every new parliament, by the whole body of the peerage duly qualified to vote at the period when the election takes place, and are not, when once elected, continued for life, as is the case in regard to Irish peers by the recent union with Ireland.