260 Modern Business Geography —_—— Railroad — vn. Canal 7 - Lo “ng oa oo ~ e = th 2 TBP Ams TheHagu- Rotter! OCEAN SCALE OF MILE 50 J . bu 00 SLvisinn. K ¢ , or al » we'd Hamburg PEN Br- fats 2 -— 3 Dortmund : isburg wselllorf rr "rv 3 RMA Fy Fraikfort SN “Stuttgart | Wren Fig. 171. Western Europe is one of the world’s two great factory regions. What is the other? On this map, only the main rivers and canals, and a small fraction of the many railway lines are given ; the units of the transportation system are too numerous and too close together for all of them to be shown on a map of this size. Note how railway lines radiate from London, Paris, and Brussels. Observe the number of ports with which Paris is connected. In northwestern Europe, the lower courses of many rivers are so broad and deep that ocean vessels can go a con- siderable distance up stream, as at London. Why is this an advantage to manufacturing? a vast forest of tall factory chimneys sends so much smoke into the air that this region has long been called ““ the Black Country.” The presence of coal and iron mines close by explains why the chief cen- ter of the British steel and iron industry is located here. - Two large districts in the British Isles resound continually with the hammering of steel as it is framed into ships. Along the River Clyde the greatest shipbuilding district in the world centers at Glasgow; while the Newcastle district on the River Tyne adds to Britain's pres- tige as the greatest shipbuilding country. Both districts have plenty of iron and coal in their immediate vicinity. Sheffield, long famed as the home of the finest cutlery, has also turned its skill to guns, pro- jectiles, and steel armor plates for warships. There is hardly a city in Great Britain that cannot boast of its manufactures. London, like New York, is a great clothing center and also manufactures an enormous variety of other goods. So does Liverpool, but that city specializes in the milling of American wheat, just as Dundee specializes in spinning and weaving jute from Cal- cutta, and Cardiff in smelting Spanish iron at its coal mines.