ULSTER, the northernmost of the four provincea into which /relent] is divided, comprises tho following nine counties :—Antrim (including Belfast and Carrickfergus), Armagh, Cavan, Donegal, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry, Monaghan, and Tyrone, to the aeparate articles on which we refer for more particular information. Ulster is bounded N. and W. by the Atlantic' Ocean, E. by the Irish Sea, S.E. by the province of Loinater, and S.W. by that of Connaught. It is comprehended between 53° 45' and 55° 25' N. lat., 5° 25' and V' 50' W. long. The area comprises 5,475,438 acres, of which 1,851,995 acres were under crops in 1851. The population in 1851 was 2,011,791.
Ulster is mountainous. Two mountain groupa cross tho province from east to west. The northernmost, which passes through the counties of Antrim, Londonderry, and Donegal, is divided into three parts by the valleys or depressions through which the Bann and the Foyle reach the sea. The mountains of Donegal are the loftiest : several of tho peaks rise to tho height of more than 2000 feet; and one (Erigal) is 2460 feet above the level of the sea. The coast of Donegal is very rugged, marked by deep inlets, as Lough Swilly and Lough Foyle, stupendous cliff., bluff headlands, and numerous islands. The southern mountains commence on the cast coast, in the county of Down, where Slieve Donard, one of the Mourne Mountains, rises to the height of 2796 feet above the level of the sea. A lower and comparatively level district intervenes between the northern and southern mountains, and occupies a considerable part of the counties of Down, Armagh, and Tyrone. Lovett NEACIII is in this central low country.
Ulster was one of the five provinces into which, at an early period, Ireland was divided. In thin province the northern fly Nialls, or O'Neil's, had their sent. In the Anglo-Norman invasion, John de
Courey conquered pert of the province. Ile assumed or received the title of Earl of Ulster ; but on hie decease his lands and title were transferred to Hugh do Lacy, and the title was inherited by the Do Burgh and Mortimer family, from the last of whom it came to the dukes of York, and with them to the crown of England. The counties were formed at various periods. Several insurrections having led to extensive forfeitures in the six counties of Donegal, Tyrone, Coleraine (now Londonderry), Fermanagh, Cavan, and Armagh, it was determined to bestow them on Englishmen or Scotehmen, or 'Servi tors in Ireland,' or on natives of Ireland, who were to be made free holders. All were termed ' undertakers,' to whom were severally assigned lots of 1000, 1500, and 2000 English acres, upon different tenures, on certain conditions, including the settling of tenants, who were to be Scotch or English, except on the lands of the ' Irish servitors,' who might take English or Irish tenants at their choice. Large grants were assigned to the corporation and some of the trading companies of the city of London, from which the town and the county of Derry received the distinctive prefix of their name, London derry. Accordingly so many English and Scotch settlers were per manently established as have stamped a peculiar character on the population of Ulster, which Is at present the great scat of menu facture in Ireland, and the part in which the Protestant religion (Episcopal and Presbyterian) is most prevalent.
The population of the counties and two chief towns in the province is given in the article IRELAND.