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...Sunray, I found it impossible to give just 'hints' to the parsing, and these clues seemed to be bothering others too.

Have now completed this (with various bits of your help along the way - thank you all. I have two forests, rivers, creatures which are all removed before entry but then have 4 anagrammed, two of which could be linked as 'areas' but the last two at 4a and 20d I cannot see a connection between. One is a cricketing position and the other either a cut of meat or part of a vessel at sea. Help!

Shellraine, they are both anagrams of clue answers from two of the categories listed in the quotation. One is 'climate' and the other is 'land'.

In fact all 4 anagrams are similarly linked.

Nelson, regarding 2D, I have a 10-letter word meaning 'forming a semi-solid mass' from which I can remove 5 letters BUT they do not constitute a real word; they are a jumble of GENOA. The resultant 5 letters fit the grid, but I do not understand its significance of the word.

2d Scottish peasant can be cotter, with third letter of milk in, gives unusual word for forming mass