HH62/2/LANARK/11

Transcription

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control than that possessed by English county councils.
In fact the Local Government Act of Scotland has secured
the formation of large combined districts for purposes of
sanitary administration, which in England are only found
here and there throughout the country, and which when
formed are often liable to be broken up by the withdrawal
of one or other of the communities entering into the
combination.
It thus comes about that the population over which the
Lanark County Council has sanitary jurisdiction does not
represent the whole or nearly the whole population of the
county, but is merely what is known as the landward
population, that is, the people living in the county outside
the City of Glasgow and the burghs. This numbers
209,308, distributed as follows among the three wards or
districts into which the county is divided, viz.:- Upper,
37,005; Middle, 143,009; and Lower, 29,294. The area
inhabited by the people these figures represent is 542,340
acres, divided as follows:- Upper Ward, 326,980 acres;
Middle Ward, 186,780 acres; and Lower Ward, 28,580
acres.

[Table inserted]

Physical Characteristics. - The physical features of the
county are extremely diversified. The Upper Ward is
very largely high moorland, almost destitute of trees or

* Calculated on the total population, including that of Govan Poorhouse
and Shieldhall Hospital.

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shrubs, and forming in many cases conical peaks, rising, like
Coulter Fell, to a height of 2,456 feet, and Tinto, to a height
nearly 1,700 feet above the Clyde, which washes its base,
or 2,350 feet above the sea. What is said to be the highest
inhabited land in Scotland is the village of Leadhills in
the Parish of Crawford, about 1,300 feet above sea level.
As we approach the neighbourhood of the Burgh of
Lanark the character of the county changes, becoming
more fertile and better wooded, until we reach the Vale of
Clyde with its well-wooded slopes, its fruitful orchards, and
fertile haughs or meadows. An extensive portion of the
Middle Ward, chiefly in the Parishes of Shotts, New
Monkland, and Avondale, is of considerable elevation, and
contains large tracts of moorland.

River Clyde. - With the exception of outlying portions,
such as at Harthill and Longriggend, of very limited area,
the whole county is drained by the River Clyde and its
tributaries, and hence often spoken of as Clydesdale.
The river rises in the southern uplands, as the hills are
called which separate Lanarkshire from Dumfriesshire
and neighbouring counties, and is formed by the union
of a number of small streams, the chief of which are the
Powtrail and Daer Waters. Its course is at first almost
directly north until it reaches Crawford, where it receives
the Midlock and Camp Waters. Flowing westwards for a
short distance it is then joined by the Glengonner Burn,
after which it again runs almost north until near Roberton,
receiving on the way the Duneaton Water from the Parish
of Crawfordjohn. Thence in a north-easterly direction it
makes towards Biggar Park, where it again changes its
course flowing in a north-west direction until it receives the
Medwin, near Carstairs. From this point its course is south-
west until it is joined by the Douglas Water, where it
abruptly assumes a north-westerly course, which, generally
speaking, it retains until it reaches Glasgow. Shortly after
skirting the town of Lanark it receives the Mouse Water,