SOLWAY

FIRTH  , an estuarine inlet of the Irish Sea, between England and Scotland . If its mouth be taken as between St Bee's Head on the English and Burrow Head on the Scottish coast, its length is 50 M . The breadth at the mouth is 32 m.; near the head, where the Solway viaduct of the Caledonian rail-way crosses the firth, it is nearly 12 m . The general direction is north-easterly from the mouth . The Scottish counties bordering the firth are Wigtownshire, Kirkcudbright and Dumfriesshire; the English coast belongs to Cumberland . On the English side the low Solway Plain borders the firth, except for a short distance above St Bees Head . The Scottish shore, however, is not continuously flat, and such elevations as Criffell (1866 ft.), Bengairn (1250) and Cairnharrow (1497), above Wigtown Bay, rise close to it . The shore line is broken on both sides by the estuaries of several rivers . Thus in Scotland the Cree and other streams enter Wigtown Bay; the Dee, Kirkcudbright Bay; Auchencairn Bay and Rough Firth receive numerous small streams, and the Nith discharges through a long estuary . The Annan has its mouth near the town of that name; and the Esk and Eden at the head of the firth, in Cumberland . On this shore Morecambe Bay receives the Wampool and Waver from the plain, the Ellen has its mouth at Maryport, and the Derwent from the Lake District at Workington . The waters of the firth are shallow, and a tidal bore occurs periodically .

The

fisheries are extensive, and though there are no ports of the first magnitude on the firth, a considerable shipping trade is carried on at Whitehaven, Harrington, Workington, Maryport and Silloth in Cumberland, and at Annan, Kirkcudbright, Creetown and Wigtown on the Scottish side .