Skill India

of the unicorn was mentioned by the ancient Greeks in accounts of natural history by various
writers, including Ctesias, Strabo, Pliny the Younger, Aelian,and Cosmas Indicopleustes.The
Bible also describes an animal, the re’em, which some translations render as unicorn.
The unicorn continues to hold a place in popular culture. It is often used as a symbol of fantasy
or rarity.
[10/15, 22:27] SKILL INDIA: Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains
nearly one-third of the United Kingdom’s land area, consisting of the northern third of the island
of Great Britain and more than 790 adjacent islands, principally in the archipelagos of the
Hebrides and the Northern Isles.The mainland of Scotland is broadly divided into three regions:
the Highlands, a mountainous region in the north and north-west; the Lowlands, a flatter plain
across the centre of the country; and the Southern Uplands, a hilly region along the southern
border. The Highlands are the most mountainous region of the UK and contain its highest peak,
Ben Nevis (1,345 metres (4,413 ft)) The region also contains many lakes, called lochs; the term
is also applied to the many saltwater inlets along the country’s deeply indented western
coastline. The geography of the many islands is varied. Some, such as Mull and Skye, are
noted for their mountainous terrain, while the likes of Tiree and Coll are much flatter.Scotland,
most northerly of the four parts of the United Kingdom, occupying about one-third of the island
of Great Britain. The name Scotland derives from the Latin Scotia, land of the Scots, a Celtic
people from Ireland who settled on the west coast of Great Britain about the 5th century CE.
The name Caledonia has often been applied to Scotland, especially in poetry. It is derived from
Caledonii, the Roman name of a tribe in the northern part of what is now Scotland.An austere
land, subject to extremes of weather, Scotland has proved a difficult home for countless
generations of its people, who have nonetheless prized it for its beauty and unique culture. “I am
a Scotsman,” the poet and novelist Sir Walter Scott wrote in the 19th century; “therefore I had to
fight my way into the world.” Historically one of Europe’s poorest countries, Scotland has
contributed much to political and practical theories of progress: forged in the Scottish
Enlightenment in the hands of such philosophers as Francis Hutcheson, Adam Smith, and
David Hume, who viewed humankind as a product of history and the “pursuit of happiness” as
an inalienable right, this progressive ideal contributed substantially to the development of
modern democracy. Scots have also played a vital role in many of the world’s most important
scientific and technological innovations, with inventors, engineers, and entrepreneurs such as
Alexander Graham Bell, James Watt, Andrew Carnegie, and John McAdam extending
Scotland’s reach far beyond the small country’s borders. Few students of English-language
literature are unacquainted with historian Thomas Carlyle, poet Robert Burns, and novelist
Muriel Spark.Scotland’s relations with England, with which it was merged in 1707 to form the
United Kingdom of Great Britain, have long been difficult. Although profoundly influenced by the
English, Scotland has long refused to consider itself as anything other than a separate country,
and it has bound itself to historical fact and legend alike in an effort to retain national identity, as
well as to the distinct dialect of English called Scots; writing defiantly of his country’s status, the
nationalist poet Hugh MacDiarmid proclaimed: “For we ha’e faith in Scotland’s hidden poo’ers,
The present’s theirs, but a’ the past and future’s oors.” That independent spirit bore fruit in 1996,
when the highly symbolic Stone of Scone was returned to Edinburgh, Scotland’s capital, from
London, and in 1999 a new Scottish Parliament—the first since 1707—was elected and given
significant powers over Scottish affairs.
Scotland is bounded by England to the south, the Atlantic Ocean to the west and north, and the
North Sea to the east. The west coast is fringed by deep indentations (sea lochs or fjords) and
by numerous islands, varying in size from mere rocks to the large landmasses of Lewis and
Harris, Skye, and Mull. The island clusters of Orkney and Shetland lie to the north. At its
greatest length, measured from Cape Wrath to the Mull of Galloway, the mainland of Scotland
extends 274 miles (441 km), while the maximum breadth—measured from Applecross, in the
western Highlands, to Buchan Ness, in the eastern Grampian Mountains—is 154 miles (248
km). But, because of the deep penetration of the sea in the sea lochs and firths (estuaries),
most places are within 40 to 50 miles (65 to 80 km) of the sea, and only 30 miles (50 km) of land
separate the Firth of Clyde and the Firth of Forth, the two great estuarine inlets on the west and
east coasts, respectively.Scotland is traditionally divided into three topographic areas: the
Highlands in the north, the Midland Valley (Central Lowlands), and the Southern Uplands. (The
latter two areas are included in the Lowlands cultural region.) Low-lying areas extend through
the Midland Valley and along the greater part of the eastern seaboard. The east coast contrasts
with the west in its smoother outline and thus creates an east-west distinction in topography as
well as a north-south one. The Highlands are bisected by the fault line of Glen Mor (Glen Albyn),
which is occupied by a series of lochs (lakes), the largest of which is Loch Ness, famous for its
probably mythical monster. North of Glen Mor is an ancient plateau, which, through long
erosion, has been cut into a series of peaks of fairly uniform height separated by glens (valleys)
carved out by glaciers. The northwestern fringe of the mainland is particularly barren, the rocks
of the Lewisian Complex having been worn down by severe glaciation to produce a hummocky
landscape, dotted by small lochs and rocks protruding from thin, acidic soil. The landscape is
varied by spectacular Torridonian sandstone mountains, weathered into sheer cliffs, rock
terraces, and pinnacles.Southeast of Glen Mor are the Grampian Mountains (also shaped by
glaciation), though there are intrusions such as the granitic masses of the Cairngorm Mountains.
The Grampians are on the whole less rocky and rugged than the mountains of the northwest,
being more rounded and grassy with wider plateau areas. But many have cliffs and pinnacles
that provide challenges for mountaineers, and the area contains Britain’s highest mountains,
reaching a maximum elevation of 4,406 feet (1,343 metres) at Ben Nevis. There are some flatter
areas—the most striking being Rannoch Moor, a bleak expanse of bogs and granitic
rocks—with narrow, deep lochs such as Rannoch and Ericht. The southeastern margin of the
Highlands is clearly marked by the Highland Boundary Fault, running northeast to southwest
from Stonehaven, just south of Aberdeen, to Helensburgh on the River Clyde and passing
through Loch Lomond, Scotland’s largest stretch of inland water.
The southern boundary of the Midland Valley is not such a continuous escarpment, but the fault
beginning in the northeast with the Lammermuir and Moorfoot hills and extending to Glen App,
in the southwest, is a distinct dividing line. In some ways the label Lowlands is a misnomer, for,
although this part of Scotland is low by comparison with adjoining areas, it is by no means flat.
The landscape includes hills such as the Sidlaws, the Ochils, the Campsies, and the Pentlands,
composed of volcanic rocks rising as high as 1,898 feet (579 metres). The Southern Uplands
are not as high as the Highlands. Glaciation has produced narrow, flat valleys separating rolling
mountains. To the east of Nithsdale the hills are rounded, gently sloping, and grass-covered,
providing excellent grazing for sheep, and they open out along the valley of the lower Tweed