Britain is comparatively small, but

Britain is comparatively small, but there is hardly a coun try in the world where such a variety of scenery can be found in so small a compass. There are wild desolate moun tains in the northern Highlands of Scotland — the home of the deer and the eagle — that are as lonely as any in Norway. There are flat tulip fields round the Fens 2 — a blaze o! colour in spring, that would make you think you were in Hoi land. Within a few miles of Manchester and Sheffield you can be in glorious heather-covered moors.

Once the British Isles were part of the mainland of Europe — the nearest point is across the Strait of Dover, where the chalk cliffs of Britain are only twenty-two miles from those of France.

The seas round the British Isles are shallow. The North Sea is nowhere more than 600 feet deep, so that if St. Paul's Cathedral were put down in any part of it some of the cathedral would still be above water, This shallowness is in some ways an advantage. Shallow water is warmer than deep water and helps to keep the shores from extreme cold. It is, too, the home of millions of fish, and more than a million tons are caught every year.

You have noticed on the map how deeply indented the coast line is. This indentation gives a good supply of splendid harbours for ships; and you will note, too, that owing to the shape of the country there is no point in it that is more than seventy miles from the sea — a fact that has greatly facilitated the export of manufactures and has made the English race a sea-loving one.