ic Ocean, in the east - by the North Sea, the average depth of which is 95 m. The two largest islands of the British Archipelago, Great Britain and Ireland, are separated from each other by the Irish Sea and the two straits, the North Channel - 20 km wide, and St.George 's Channel - over 100 km wide. The distance between the ports of Liverpool and Dublin is 230 km.from Britain the territories of six European countries look into the coasts of the North Sea - France, Belgium, the Netherlands, the Federative Republic of Germany, Denmark and Norway and for some of them this sea is the only exit to the World Ocean. The most important sea routes pass through the English Channel and the North Sea linking Europe with the Americas and other continents. The advantageous geographical position of Great Britain created favourable conditions for the development of her shipping, trade and the economy as a whole.place on the continental shelf has been of great advantage to the British fishing industry. Edible fish feed largely on plankton, the minute organism which abound in the shallow waters above the continental shelf, so that stretches of water such as the North Sea have long been rich fishing-grounds. Catches have been reduced by over-fishing, but other valuable resources have been discovered and exploited beneath the continental shelf - oil and natural gas.North Atlantic Current, the drift of warm water which reaches the islands from across the Atlantic, spreads out over the shelf magnifying its amiIiorating effect on the British Isles. This rather shallow skin of surface water, light because it is warm, is driven north-eastward across the ocean by the westerly winds. It forms part of the Gulf Stream system, which begins where Florida Current pours vast quantities of remarkably warm water into the circulation of the North Atlantic. In its journey across that ocean the water loses part of its heat, but retains enough to keep the ocean surface west of the British Isles warm in winter. During the winter months water which has been heated in far lower latitudes is arriving in the North Atlantic. Furthermore, the ocean surface becomes warmer or cooler, according to season, far more slowly than does a land surface in similar latitudes. The maximum surface temperature off the British coasts is reached in August; or even as late as September. Thus, when winter comes, there is much heat available to warm the air of the westerlies, and the seasonal fall of air temperature over Britain is sIow and slight.British Isles are known for their greatly indented coastline. Therefore there are many bays and harbours, peninsulas and capes on the coast, which were formed as a result of the raising and submerging of the land surface in the process of the geological development of the islands. The indentity pattern of the island of Great Britain greatly resembles that of the Norwegian coast abounding in numerous deep and winding, like rivers, fiords. Due to its extreme indentity the coastline of Great Britain despite its relatively modest size, is 8,000 km long.much indented is the western coast, especially the coasts of Scotland and Wales. The highlands here rise quite abruptly from sea level, so that westward - flowing rivers are short end swift. Many long narrow lochs, or lakes, especially in the North-West Highlands, are finger lakes. Along the west coast are many inlets that are called lochs, such as Loch Fyne. These are sea lochs, or fiords: the ends of glaciated valleys which have been submerged by the sea.east coast is less lofty and more regular than the west coast, land sloping gradually down to the low sea shore and the coastal lowlands being flooded frequently . is the English coast of the Strait of Dover, where the chalk ridge comes right up to the sea repeating the chalk break of the French coast on the other side of the English Channel. Irish coasts are more like those of England. The west coast is more indented with long rias and peninsulas, while the south coast conforms more with the general run of the relief. The east is relatively smooth with a few major estuaries in the north but it is only in the southeast; that lowland coasts with spite and bars blocking the estuaries are found. Cliffed coasts predominate here, and some are very beautiful.majority of the British ports have grown up at the mouths, wide estuaries of rivers which give sheltered water, deep enough to take the comparatively large ships. These sites are usually tidal and, from the eighteenth century onwards it became usual to construct dock basins which could be isolated from the sea or river by closing their gates. This meant that, as the tide ebbed and the water level in the estuary began to fall, the gates could by closed and the water level in the dock could be maintained at a high level, so that loading or unloading could continue regardless of the state of the tide. Many of the dock systems built during the nineteen...
