FIFE

or FIFES HIRE, a maritime county, Scotland, forming the peninsula between the Firths of Forth and Tay; extreme length, 43 miles; extreme breadth, 17 miles; area, 322,844 acres. The surface is pleasantly un-" dulating. The principal elevations are the Lomond Hills, whose highest summit is 1,720 feet above sea-level. The principal valley, called Strath Eden or the ‘Howe (hollow) of Fife,’ watered by the Eden, is very fertile, higaly cultivated, and thickly studded with beautiful mansions and villas, Very fertile also is the district lying along the shores of the Firth of Forth, and remarkable for the number of towns and villages with which it is lined. But the north-eastern part, between St. Andrews and the Tay, which is mostly a wet clayey soil, and the north-western part, mostly rock and moor, are in general cold and poor. Fife is the second largest coal producing county in Scotland. Iron, limestone, and freestone abound. The chief manufacture is linen, especially damasks, diapers, ., principally at Dun ferm line; floorcloth is largely made, more especially at Kirkealdy. There are salmon and other fisheries. The principal towns are Kirkealdy, Dun ferm line, and St. Andrews; Cupar is the county town. Fife returns two members to the House of Commons, being divided into an eastcrn and @ western division. Pop. (1931), 276,261.