manufactures of Birmingham, constitutes the centre of the Midlands.
Smaller patches of the Coal Measures appear near Tamworth and Burton,
while deep shafts have been sunk in many places through the overlying
Triassic strata to the coal below, thus extending the mining and
manufacturing area beyond the actual outcrop of the Coal Measures. A
few small outcrops occur where still more ancient strata have been
raised to the surface, as, for instance, in Charnwood Forest, where
the Archaean rocks, with intrusions of granite, create a patch of
highland scenery in the very heart of the English plain; and in the
Lickey Hills, near Birmingham, where the prominent features are due to
volcanic rocks of very ancient date. The "Waterstones," or Lower
Keuper Sandstones,--forming gentle elevations above the softer marls,
and usually charged with an abundant supply of water, which can be
reached by wells,--form the site of many towns, such as Birmingham,
Warwick and Lichfield, and of very numerous villages. The plain as a
whole is fertile and undulating, rich in woods and richer in pasture:
the very heart of rural England. Cattle-grazing is the chief farm
industry in the west, sheep and horse-rearing in the east; the
prevalence of the prefix "Market" in the names of the rural towns is
noticeable in this respect. The manufacture of woollen and leather
goods is a natural result of the raising of live stock; Leicester,
Coventry and Nottingham are manufacturing towns of the region. The
historic castles, the sites of ancient battles, and the innumerable
mansions of the wealthy, combine to give to central England a certain
aesthetic interest which the more purely manufacturing districts of
the west and north fail to inspire. The midland plain curves northward
between the outcrop of the Dolomite on the west and the Oolitic
heights on the east. It sinks lowest where the estuary of the Humber
gathers in its main tributaries, and the greater part of the surface
is covered with recent alluvial deposits. The Trent runs north in the
southern half of this plain, the Ouse runs south through the northern
half, which is known as the Vale of York, lying low between the
Pennine heights on the west and the Yorkshire moors on the east. Where
the plain reaches the sea, the soft rocks are cut back into the
estuary of the Tees, and there Middlesbrough stands at the base of the
Moors. The quie