E. by Wicklow and Wexford, S. by
Wexford, and W. by Queen's county and Kilkenny. Excepting Louth, it is
the smallest county in Ireland, having an area of 221,424 acres, or
about 346 sq. m. The surface of the county is in general level or gently
undulating, and of pleasing appearance, except the elevated tract of
land known as the ridge of Old Leighlin (Gallows Hill Bog, 974 ft.),
forming the beginning of the coal-measures of Leinster, and the
south-eastern portion of the county bordering on Wexford, where the wild
and barren granitic elevations of Knockroe (1746 ft.) and Mount Leinster
(2610 ft.) present a bolder aspect. Glacial deposits, which overspread
the lower grounds, sometimes afford good examples of the ridge-forms
known as eskers, as in the neighbourhood of Bagenalstown. There are no
lakes nor canals in the county, nor does it contain the source of any
important river; but on its western side it is intersected from north to
south by the Barrow, which is navigable throughout the county and
affords means of communication with the port of Waterford; while on the
eastern border the Slaney, which is not navigable in any part of its
course through the county, passes out of Carlow into Wexford at
Newtownbarry.

Carlow is largely a granite county; but here the Leinster Chain does not
form a uniform moorland. The mica-schists and Silurian slates of its
eastern flank are seen in the diversified and hilly country on the pass
over the shoulder of Mt. Leinster, between Newtownbarry and Borris. The
highland drops westward to the valley of the Barrow, Carlow and
Bagenalstown lying on Carboniferous Limestone, which here abuts upon the
granite. On the west of the hollow, the high edge of the Castle-comer
coalfields rises, scarps of limestone, grit, and coal-measures
succeeding one another on the ascent. Formerly clay-ironstone was raised
from the Upper Carboniferous strata.

The soil is of great natural richness, and the country is among the most
generally fertile in the island. Agriculture is the chief occupation of
the inhabitants, but is not so fully developed as the capabilities of
the land would suggest; in effect, the extent of land under tillage
shows a distinctly retrograde movement, being rather more than half that
under pasture. The pasture land is of excellent quality, and generally
occupied as dairy farms, the butter made in this county maintaining a
high reputation in the Dublin market. The farms are frequently l