TRENT AND HUMBER,* river flowing through the central parte of England. Although the Trent and Humber are commonly spoken of as distinct, they are strictly parts of the same river. The 'lumber is simply the 'estuary formed by the junction of several streams, and is therefore to be regarded as a part of that one of its affluents which for length and importance stands first in the system.
Barin.-1f we consider the mouth of the Humber as defined by Spurn Head In Yorkshire and Donna Nook in Lincolnshire, and all the waters flowing into it within those limits as belonging to the system of which it is the outlet, the limits of its basin are se (in the north-east it is bounded by the uplands which, rising from the alluvial district of form the cliffs which skirt with some intervals the Yorkshire coast between Spurn head and Harmon. All this part of the basin is alluvial ; but near Bridlington Quay the Yorkshire Welds, which consist of an insulated rants of chalk hills, rise above the alluvium. The Yorkshire Welds encroach upon the basin of the Humber, extending southward is the form of a crescent more than 30 miles between its extremities, from Flamborough Head near Bridlington almost to the banks of the Humber, about 8 or 10 miles above Hull, and separating the sub-basin of the Hull from that of the Derwent. The northern part of the Weide la drained by a stream which flows through a valley In the chalk, and falls Into the sea at Bridlington Quay. North-west of Flamberongh Head the basin of the Humber extends to the coast, for the source of the Hartford, a feeder of the Des-went, is as near the shore at Filey Boy as that of the Hull at Bridlington Bay; nor is the head of the Dement itself more than two or three miles distant from Robin Hood's Bay, which is the north-eastern extremity of the basin.
From the western end of the Eastern Moorlands, a range of °elite hills, which extend inland from Robin Hood's Bay, the basin is bounded still on the north side by a lateral branch or offset of the great Pennine chain, which branch separates the basin of the Humber from those of the Tees and the Eden. The branches which the Pennine
chain throws off toward the east, and which constitute the western moorlands of Yorkshire, are separated from each other by long narrow valleys, in which the Swale, the Yore, the Wharfe, the Aire, and the Calder, all directly or indirectly tributaries of the Ouse, have their course. At the southern end of the Pennine chain the western boundary is formed by the highlands of the Peak of Derbyshire and the moor lands of Northern Staffordshire. The western boundary from Stafford shire southward separates the basin of the Trent and Humber from that of the Severn. The southern limit, commencing at the head of the river Rea, runs eastward through Worcestershire and Warwick shire, past the head of the Blythe, 5 miles north-west from Henley-in Arden, to Wroxhall, 4 miles north-west from Warwick; it then proceeds by Meriden and Nuneaton to Bulkington (4 miles north-east of Coven try), and turning north-east is defined by the hills which run through Leicestershire and Rutlandehire past Lutterworth, Kibworth, to Burleigh, the south-eastern limit of the basin. The eastern boundary is formed by the uplands on the border of Lincolnshire and Notting hamshire, which separate the valleys of the Witham and the Trent, passing Newark and extending to Gaineborough. The eastern boundary separates the basin of the Trent from those of the Glen, the Witham, and the Steeping, all flowing into the Wash. These limits comprehend some important manufacturing districts : as the great eeat of the woollen manufacture in Yorkshire ; of the hosiery and lace manufac ture in Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire ; of the ootton and silk manufacture of Derbyshire; and of the iron manufacture of Stafford shire and Warwickshire. The entire area of the basin is probably about 9100 square miles, which makes it by far the largest iu Great Britain ; that of the Severn and Wye being only 5900 square miles; and that of the Thames and Medway 6500 square miles, little more than two-thirds of that of the Trent and Humber.