A sketch of the natural history (vertebrates) of the British Islands : With a concise bibliography of popular works relating to the British fauna, and a list of field clubs and natural history societies in the United Kingdom / by F.G. Aflalo ; with illustrations.

  • Frederick George Aflalo
Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A sketch of the natural history (vertebrates) of the British Islands : With a concise bibliography of popular works relating to the British fauna, and a list of field clubs and natural history societies in the United Kingdom / by F.G. Aflalo ; with illustrations. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    24/526 page 2
    nearly one hundred and fifty such rocks, and in the Orkneys there are sixty-seven. The area of the islands under consideration is, for all practical purposes, about 120,000 square miles, of which England and Wales, with their islands, are Area and r0Ughiy the one half, or rather less, while Scotland and Ireland, with their islands, are roughly the other half, or rather more. The coast-line is proportionately enormous—probably, if we take into con- sideration all the deep inlets on the west coasts of both Great Britain and Ireland, not far short of 10,000 miles. This will be better appreciated when we recollect that of Ireland it has been said that no inland town is more than fifty miles from salt water, or when we compare our coast- line with the 8000 miles of coast-line in Australia to 3,000,000 square miles of area. Of these 120,000 square miles it should, however, be remembered that, at the lowest possible computation, one-third at the least is composed of mountain, bog, and moor—wild nature, in fact; while of the 50,000,000 acres that approximately remain, little more than 35,000,000 are in all probability under cultivation, three-quarters under grass, the rest under oats and other crops. Market-gardening and the cultivation of orchards usually occupy attention on the outskirts of our larger towns. Space will not admit of dwelling at greater length on these important considerations as factors in the animal life of different parts of the country : it must suffice to leave them with this bare enumeration. A few words must now be said on the subject of our climate. It is customary to speak of this in terms of de- rision, and without a doubt it is subject to ex- traordinary and unlooked-for developments of such a nature as to interfere seriously with private arrange- ments for outdoor excursions. Climate is not, however, measured by considerations of this kind. As a matter of fact, these islands enjoy, thanks to the surrounding water, the genial influence of the Gulf Stream, and the prevalence Climate.
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image