Uplands

“ A traveller, familiar with the low grounds of England, when he first enters the northern lowlands is at once impressed by their much more limited extent. He finds them to occupy comparatively restricted spaces between uplands and highlands, their largest expanse lying in the broad depression between the southern border of the Highland mountains and the great tract of high pastoral land in the southern counties. Another considerable area of them intervenes between these southern uplands and the flanks of the Cheviot Hills. ”

“ Subsequent alterations in its surface, due to erosion and other factors, gave rise to the present uplands and lowlands, which have been of determining influence in the peopling of the section, the rugged uplands offering so hard a subsistence that they were nowhere willingly chosen for settlement so long as land might still be had in the lowlands. ”

“ The general configuration of the main mass of the Southern Uplands—that is to say, the mountain-groups extending along the northern portion of the area under review, from Loch Ryan to the coast between Dunbar and St. Abb’s Head—is somewhat tame and monotonous. The mountains are — 30 — flat-topped elevations, with broad, rounded shoulders and smooth grassy slopes. Standing on the summits of the Higher hills, one seems to be in the midst of a wide, gently undulating plain, the surface of which is not broken by the appearance of any isolated peaks or eminences. ”

“ The uplands which prevail through the centre of this area at altitudes of about 1000 ft. rise to 1500 or 2000 ft. in the north-west, before descent is made to the lowlands of the stratified belt (St Lawrence-Champlain-Hudson valleys, described later on as part of the Great Appalachian valley) , and at the same time the rising uplands are diversified with monadnocks of increasing number and height and by mature valleys cut to greater and greater depths; thus the interior of New England is moderately mountainous. ”

“ On the eastern coast, however, the distinction between the uplands and lowlands is strongly marked both in Queensland and New South Wales, even in those cases where the rivers rise in uplands approaching in elevation to the level of the tableland. The eastern coast of northern Queensland is, from its situation and the superior height of the coast range combined, the tropical garden of Australia, the luxuriant growth of vegetation, taking the form of dense scrubs and jungles springing from a deep, rich soil. ”

“ The surface of these uplands is for the most part treeless and even bushless. Where not covered with peat-moss, it is clothed with bent or with heather, kept short and green by periodical burning in the springtime. Herds of cattle and flocks of sheep wander over the pastures, but, save the stone fences, there is little other visible trace of human occupation. ”

“ An oasis or an isolated upland valley would combine, both in food and climate, the elements on which the formation of the more vigorous type depended. Later comes the renewal contact with the lowland races and the descent of the northern nomad to the fertile lowlands as a conqueror. From this union come the mixed races that occupy the medium altitudes. The upland races can not go too far down south without facing extinction, while the lowland races have been unsuccessful in facing the rigor of dry, cold uplands. ”

“ When King Olaf had despatched Bjorn and his followers to Gautland, he sent other people also to the Uplands, with the errand that they should have guest-quarters prepared for him, as he intended that winter (A.D. 1018) to live as guest in the Uplands; for it had been the custom of former kings to make a progress in guest-quarters every third year in the Uplands. In autumn he began his progress from Sarpsborg, and went first to Vingulmark. ”

“ She looked back to many things; his meetings with Lady Dora, first in the holly field at home, that had puzzled her, then at Uplands, so sedulously concealed from her—all arose, and without jealousy of her cousin, she felt, and more firmly in that it was an unworn, up-springing thought of an instant, that Miles had once loved Dora, and possibly marrying her for pique, subsequent disgust had ensued. ”

“ Thus, in the New England plateau the chief growth during the past forty years has been in the valley lands. In that time if the uplands have not suffered actual loss, they certainly have made no material gains. Upland farming has not proved a remunerative venture, and many of the farms have either been abandoned or converted to other uses. ”

“ Early next morning he and Minnie returned to town, and Burton, too, quitted Uplands.
"That fool Dalby made a confounded mistake," said Lord Randolph to his crony, Vellumy, next day; "but it has all turned out most fortunately. What an exquisite creature Mrs. Tremenhere is! Ten thousand times handsomer even than her cousin. Lady Dora," (for Miles had related all, to leave no further doubt or suspicion about Minnie.) ”

“ Well, she just made an awful fuss and wouldn't let Nan go over to Uplands at all. Nan snuck off, though, and Aunt Sarah was as mad as hops. She shut Nan up and Nan fell down-stairs and broke her arm and then Uplands burned down and grandmother had to come to our house where she died." Jack took a long breath after her gallop through these annals of family history. ”

“ Thus had followed the renewal of relations between the old brown house where the Corner girls lived and the big house of Uplands to which the elder Mrs. Corner and her daughter had returned after several years' residence abroad. What a long winter it would have been, Nan reflected, if, while their precious mother was away in the Adirondacks for her health, there had been no Aunt Helen near by. How like a true fairy godmother she had come to them full of gifts which meant so much to a poverty-stricken household. ”

“ When the ground is attacked anew in detail, with the assistance of such palæontological and lithological horizons as have permitted the complicated structure of the southern uplands of Scotland to be unravelled, we may be enabled to tabulate the successive phases of the volcanic history of the region in a way which is for the present impossible. ”

“ I feel now, dear Aunt Sarah, that I did wrong in harboring any ill-will toward Helen. I am sure my dear husband would wish me to meet any advances from her with an equally forgiving spirit and I do want my children to see and love their Aunt Helen, the only sister of their father. So Nan has my permission to go to Uplands when she receives an invitation. When one feels that the waves from the dark river may perhaps soon be touching her feet, quarrels and dissensions seem very petty things. ”

“ Miles looked down thoughtfully, doubtingly, a moment, then, raising his eyes, said carelessly—"You know, darling, why I went to Uplands Park. Lord Randolph Gray wished me to come, whilst he was down there, to choose a good light for my 'Aurora' when I have completed it, and also to make some other artistic arrangements, which cannot but prove of great service to me. My Minnie knows I am only an artist, obliged to follow as a profession what was once only pleasure." ”

“ Nothing could be finer than the situation of Upton, placed on the summit of a steep acclivity, looking over a rich and fertile valley to a range of woody hills; nothing more beautiful than the approach from Belford, the road leading across a common between a double row of noble oaks, the ground on one side sinking with the abruptness of a north-country burn, whilst a clear spring, bursting from the hill side, made its way to the bottom between patches of shaggy underwood and a grove of smaller trees ”

“ Half way between Upsala and Danemora we passed a large castle, not distinguished for its architecture, its situation, or any thing else. Then we neared the river Fyris, and the long lake of Danemora; both are quite overgrown with reeds and grass, and have flat uninteresting shores; indeed the whole journey offers little variety, as the road lies through a plain, only diversified by woods, fields, and pieces of rock. These are interesting features, because one cannot imagine how they came there, the mountains being at a great distance, and the soil by no means rocky. ”

“ Upernavik District extends from about latitude 70° to latitude 74°, and enjoys the pre-eminent distinction of being the most northern spot of all the earth where civilized industry is carried on. The settlements comprised within this most northern of the Greenland Districts are, Upernavik (which is the capital) , Proven, South Proven, Karsuk (the home of Esac) , Aukpadlartok, Kresarsoak, Kryatok, and Tessuisak. Of these, the latter is the most northern, and is, moreover, the most northern spot of earth where any Christian people dwell. ”

“ Werburgh, across Hoo Common and past the hamlet of Wainscot, we come to the turning for Upnor Castle, which lies to the left; paradoxically enough, it would seem, down a village street of the narrowest, steepest, and most rugged description. Surely, thinks the stranger, one should ascend to Upnor. But “Upnor,” which means “up-shore,” refers, not to a height, but to the upper reaches of the Medway estuary. ”

“ But the calmest region is the upland, where human life is spread out beneath the bodily eye, where the mind roves from the peasant’s nest to the spiry town, from the schoolhouse to the churchyard, from the diminished team in the patch of fallow, or the fisherman’s boat in the cove, to the viaduct that spans the valley, or the fleet that glides ghostlike on the horizon. ”

“ These upland stretches, consequently, are among the most desolate spots to be found in our islands. I have walked over them myself within recent years and met not a human soul, nor beast of man's taming. Ravens, curlews, peewits, a lagging fox or limping hare; such, with the unsensed Spirits of the Earth, will be your company. In particular I traversed (in 1902) the great upland called Limmer Fell, and saw the tarn—Silent Water—and the trees called The Seven Sisters. They are silver birches of remarkable size and beauty. One of them is fallen. ”

“ About three miles north of Upsala, the seat of the great university, is Old Upsala, more sacred than any other spot in Sweden: for here are the lofty mounds which tradition has consecrated as graves of the gods,—the gods who aforetime were held in reverent awe and honor by the Scandinavian race, and who, to this day, hold some sort of sway over the rude masses of the North. ”

“ Men exposed to such dread influences could not be other than fiends, as they were, and they warred together cruelly, as the elements were doing.
Where the great plains of the Upper Columbia now spread, along the Umatilla, in the lovely valley of the Grande Ronde, between the walls of the Grand Coulee, was an enormous inland sea filling the vast interior of the continent, and beating forever against ramparts of hills, to the east of the desolate plain of the Dalles. ”

“ From Winter’s silence, breathing, sighing, sleeping, creeping on to Spring with sap, with shoot, with bud and flower, hour on hour playing, plying gentleness and power for Summer’s rest to temper strength for birth in Autumn, with crowning brilliancy and rich rewards untaxed to bird, to beast, to insect and to man, gift on gift for full contentment, sustenance and labor. ”

“ They were a thrifty hard-living race of fine physique, who had kept very much to themselves, owing largely to the inaccessibility of the country they inhabited; they seldom visited any other part of Upsidonia, or welcomed visitors to their own. They had no rich among them, and seemed to have solved all the economic problems that were so disturbing in and around Culbut, for instance. There were no towns in the Highlands; everybody lived on the land, and as the soil was very poor they had a hard struggle for existence, which brought out the best that was in them. ”

“ After passing Utrecht, the hills north-east of the Rhine come into view, and gather in towards the river, till at Wyck Dursted they are within three or four miles, and at Amelengen they join the 378 river. The plains, after passing Utrecht, become more sandy; the hills are very poor and sandy, generally waste in broom, sometimes a little corn. The plains are in corn, grass, and willow. The plantations of the latter are immense, and give it the air of an uncultivated country. There are now few châteaux; farm-houses abound, built generally of brick, and covered with tile or thatch. ”

“ UPSALA, or Uppsala, a city of Sweden, the seat of a university and of the archbishop of Sweden, chief town of the district (län) of Upsala, 41 m. N. of Stockholm by the Northern railway. Pop. (1900) 22,855. It has water-communication with Stockholm by the river Fyris and the northward arm of Lake Mälar, into which it flows. The older part of the city lies on its sloping west bank, the cathedral and castle occupying dominating heights, with the university buildings below. West and south is a girdle of gardens. The new town occupies the flat east bank, and the whole is set in a fertile plain. ”

“ The most valuable tracts of land are in the interior, to the east of the Darling Range of mountains; and similar tracts approach to within twenty-five miles of the coast, in the south-east parts of the colony, between Cape Leeuwin and King George’s Sound. The best land of these tracts is not confined to the vicinity of lakes, rivers, or hills, as is mostly the case on the west side of the mountains, where the principal body of the settlers are at present located. ”

“ The extensive tract of table-land lying beyond the present colonial boundary to the southward, between the Great Warragong Chain, terminating in Wilson's Promontory, and now called the Snowy Mountains, or Australian Alps, and the mountainous range abutting on the east coast, is also occupied at present by numerous squatters, with large flocks and herds from New South Wales. ”