In physical geography, a lowland is any broad expanse of land with a general low level. This term can also be described as a area of land that is below sea level. The term is thus applied to the landward portion of the upward slope from oceanic depths to continental highlands, to a region of depression in the interior of a mountainous region, to a plain of denudation, or to any region in contrast to a highland. The Lowlands and Highlands of Scotland are typical.
Famous quotes containing the word lowland:
“In a coign of the cliff between lowland and highland,
At the sea-down’s edge between windward and lee,
Walled round with rocks as an inland island,
The ghost of a garden fronts the sea.”
—A.C. (Algernon Charles)
“The hill farmer ... always seems to make out somehow with his corn patch, his few vegetables, his rifle, and fishing rod. This self-contained economy creates in the hillman a comparative disinterest in the world’s affairs, along with a disdain of lowland ways. “I don’t go to question the good Lord in his wisdom,” runs the phrasing attributed to a typical mountaineer, “but I jest cain’t see why He put valleys in between the hills.””
—Administration in the State of Arka, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“And they wrapped him up in an old cow’s hide,
And they sunk him in the Lowland sea,
And they sunk him in the Lowlands low.”
—Unknown. The Golden Vanity (l. 43–45)