The principal mass of the Alps extends in a semi circle from Nice, on the shores of the Mediterranean, to Trieste, on the Adriatic, a distance of 550 miles. Southward of Mont Blanc, the Alps consist of a single chain, with many lateral branches, which lie chiefly on the west side; but immediately to the eastward of Mont Blanc, the principal chain divides into two, which enclose the sources of the Rhone. These meet, again, at St Gothard, and, on the east side of it, partuito three chains, one of which loses itself in Bavaria, another in Austria near Vienna, and the third terminates near Trieste. A lateral chain, of no great elevation, passes eastward, and connects the Alps with the mountains of European Turkey. Smaller branches connect the Alps with the Bohemian and Carpathian mountains on the north, with the Vosges and Cevennes on the west, and, through the latter, with the Pyrenees. The Apenninez are but a prolongation of the Alps on the south. Mont Blanc, the loftiest of the Alps, and the highest mountain in Europe, has an ele vation of 15,680 English feet; and Mount Rosa,. the Jungfrau, the Schreikhorn, and several other summits, approach to this height. The elevation of the chain diminishes towards both extremities. In general, the escarpments, or steepest sides, are turn ed towards Italy, and the lateral and subordinate branches are most numerous, and extend farthest on the opposite side. The central chain of the Alps consists chiefly of granite, gneiss, sienite, and other primitive rocks. Among the lateral ridges, to the westward of St Gothard, calcareous rocks, with clay.. slate and mica-slate, abound on the aide of France; on the side of Italy, the ridges are narrower, magne sian rocks abound, and the clay-slate is wanting. On both sides are found great deposits of gravel, and large detached blocks or boulders, often at a vast dis tance from their original situations. Eastward from St Gothard, the central chain is accompanied on each side by a calcareous chain of great elevation.• Though the summits of the Alps are steep and rocky, and the higher wallies are filled with glaciers, there is much good soil below. The vine grows to the height of 1600 feet above the sea, the oak to the height of 3390, corn to 4200 feet, and the larch to 6720 feet. At 6400 feet above the sea, we have the climate of Lapland, in latitude 68°, so that a de gree of latitude, in the northern half of the temperate zone in Europe, corresponds to an elevation of about 290 feet. The inferior limit of perpetual snow, ac cording to Humboldt, is at the height of 8760 feet, in the latitude of 46°. (Annals of Phil. II. 373.) The chain of the Pyrenees, which is next to the Alps in elevation, runs in the direction of east and west. Its length is about 240 miles; but if we in clude the Cantabrian mountains, which continue in the same line without interruption, the whole length will be about 500 miles. The tentral chain of the proper Pyrenees is of granite, but the most elevated summits are of secondary limestone, and lie on the south side of the granite. Mont Perdu, esteemed the loftiest of the whole range, consists oefetid lime stone, and rises to the height of 11,270 feet. The south aide of the Pyrenees is rugged and precipitous ; but, on the north, there is a gradual descent to the plains of France by a series of parallel ridges dimi nishing in height. The Cantabrian mountains are lower than the Pyrenees, and present their steepest sides to the north. There are four other chains of mountains in Spain, all running in a direction ap proaching to east and west, and all connected with one another and with the Pyrenees. The most ele vated of these is the Sierra Nevada, the southmost, one of whose summits rises to the height of 11,660 feet. (Laborde, I. 173.) The inferior limit of per petual snow on the Pyrenees is at the height of 8960. The red pine rises to the height of 7480 feet, which is about 700 feet higher than any species of trees on the Alps.t The Apennines form an uninterrupted chain 750 miles in length, extending from the south-west ter mination of the Alps near Nice to the Straits of Mes sina. The north-west division, which skirts the ba sin of Lombardy, consists chiefly of grey wacke; from Tuscany to near the southern extremity, the prevail ing rock is secondary limestone. Granite and other primitive rocks are found at the two extremities in Liguria and Calabria, but are wholly wanting in the intermediate space. The most considerable eleva tions are about the middle of the chain, where II Gransasso rises to the height of 9370 feet. (Min& XXVI. 156.) The Carpathian and Sudetic mountains, with the Erzegebirge and Boehmerwald, may be considered as forming one continued chain, the length of which, from the point where it strikes the Danube in Hun. gary, to the point where it strikes the same river in Bavaria, is about 1200 miles, exclusive of the trans verse branches which separate Moravia from Bohe mia and Hungary. The declivities of this long range of mountains are steepest on the south side. The elevations are lowest on the west, and generally increase as we advance eastward, till we come to the sources of the Thiess in the north of Hungary,. after which they again decline. The Ficbtelberg, at the westmost point of the chain, is 4030 feet high ; Schnekoppe, the highest of the Sudetic mountains, is 5280 feet, and Lomnitz in Hungary, the loftiest of the whole range, is 84.60 feet. None of these moun tains rise to the region of perpetual snow, the inferior limit of which, according to Wahlenberg, is about 60 feet above the summit of Lomnitz. The most
elevated parts of these mountains consist of primitive rocks; corn and fruit trees are said to grow at a greater height upon the Carpathians than upon the Alps, though the latter are two degrees farther south.* The chain of the Dofrines, or great Scandinavian Alps, is about 1000 miles in length, and has a gene ral elevation of frcen 6000 to 6500 feet. The alti tude of Snahatta, near the centre of the chain, in la titude 63, is about 8120 feet. (Von Buch's Travels.) These mountains consist almost entirely of primitive rocks, and present their steepest sides to the west. On Sulitelma, the highest mountain of this chain in Lap land, in latitude 67.10, the inferior limit of perpetual snow is at the height of 3500 feet.
The Uralian mountains, which form the boundary of Europe on the north-east, are but imperfectly known. Some of their summits are covered with perpetual snow, but their height is believed not to exceed that of the Scandinavian Alps. They con sist chiefly of primitive rocks. The whole length of the chain, which runs nearly north and 'south, is about 1400 miles, but more than. one-half of it is ih Asia.
Of the mountains of European Turkey, we know as little as of the Urals. From a central point, near ly equidistant from the Danube, the Adriatic, and the .Egean Sea, three chains proceed in different directions; one, the ancient Hemus, runs eastward to the Black Sea ; a second, north-westward, till it joins the Comic Alps ; and a third, southward through the peninsula of Greece. These principal chains send out many branches, but neither their height, nor their geological structure, is known with any degree of accuracy.
The Cevennes in the south of France extend about 300 miles in length from north to south, and their two most elevated summits, Mont d'Or and Cantal, rise to the height of 6400 and 6100 feet. Mount Jura, between France and Switzerland, has nearly the same elevation. The Vosges, a small chain in the north-east of France, rise nowhere more than 4600 feet above the sea. (Mentelle et Malte-Brun, Geog. XVI. 6, 28, 44.) The mountains of Britain extend with some inter ruptions over a space of 630 miles, along the west side of the island. They are not placed in chains, but rather in irregular groups, and consist chiefly of primitive and transition rocks. Snowden in Caer narvonshire, the highest mountain in Wales, has an elevation of 3568 feet. Bennevis in Inverness-shire, which rises 4350 feet above the sea, is the highest land in the island. (Jameson's Geognosy, 319, 320.) There are thirteen volcanoes in Europe, which all situated in the vicinity of the sea. The most remarkable are, Mount Etna, in Sicily, which is 10,963 feet in height. (Jameson.) Its eruptions happen very irregularly; sometimes 50 or 100 years have intervened between one eruption and another, at other times less than one year. Mount Vesuvius, in Naples, which lies about 200 miles north from Etna, is 3900 feet high. (Jameson.) Its eruptions are less frequent than those of Etna. Stromboli, which occupies an island in the Mediterranean, about 80 miles north from Etna, is the only volcano in Europe that throws out smoke or flames constant ly. Heckla is a mountain near the south coast of Iceland, 4900 feet high. (Jameson.) Its eruptions are not frequent. The last was in 1783.
Europe is well watered with rivers, but they are; but brooks compared with the mighty streams of Asia and America; and, from the unevenness of the surface, afford, in general, no great extent of inland navigation. The Danube, the largest river that is entirely in Europe, is about 1500 miles in length, and waters a superficies of 370,000 square miles. But the Amazons, though only twice the length of the Danube, waters a surface seven times as large, and equal to four-fifths of the Continent of Europe; and, as the quantity of rain that falls in tropical countries is much greater than in northern latitudes, it is probable, notwithstanding the increased evapo ration there, that the Amazons conveys more water than all the rivers of Europe put together. If we divide the length of the Danube into a hundred parts, the length of the principal rivers of Europe, expressed in these parts, will be as follows: A much smaller proportion of the waters of the European Continent flows into the Mediterranean than the extent of its coasts would lead us to ex pect. The high mountains that range along the south of Europe, parallel to its shores, from Gibraltar to Constantinople, turn the course of the large streams in an opposite direction. Though the length of the line of coast between the points last-mention ed, without computing minute sinuosities, is 4000 miles, or one-fourth of the circumference of Europe, not more than one-tenth of the waters of this quar ter of the globe fall into the Mediterranean. The Black Sea, on the other hand, which presents only 850 miles of coast on the side of Europe, re ceives one-fourth of its waters. It will be seen, from the subjoined table, that one-tenth part of the waters of Europe flow into Asia by the Wolf* ; that the Black Sea and the Baltic alone receive one-half, while only about one-sixth falls into the Atlantic. If the whole of the river waters of Europe be divided into a hundred parts, their distribution will be nearly as follows : Water con.