TURKEY tx EUROPE, generally hilly and undulating, is traversed by a mountain sys tem which has its in the Alps, enters Turkey at the n.w. corner, and runs nearly parallel to the coast, under the names of the Dinaric Alps and Mt. Pindus, as far as the Greek frontier. This range sends numerous offshoots e. and w.; the great eastern off shoot being the Balkans (q.v.) range; with its numerous branches to n. and south. The rivers of Turkey are chiefly the tributaries of the Danube; the Maritza, Strum°, Vardar; the Narenta, Drin, and Voyutza.
On the high lands, the cold is excessive in winter, owing to the n.e. winds, which blow from the bleak and icy steppes of southern Russia; and the heat of summer is almost insupportable in the western valleys. Violent climatic change is, on the whole, the rule, in European Turkey; but those districts which arc sheltered from the cold winds, as the Albanian valleys, enjoy a comparatively equable temperature. The soil is for the
most part very fertile; but owing to the positive discouragement of industry by the oppres sive system of taxation which was long in force, little progress has been made in the art of agriculture, and the most primitive implements are in common use. The culti vated products include most of those usual in central and southern Europe—viz., maize,. rice, cotton, rye, barley, and millet. The mineral products are, iron in abundance, argentiferous lead ore, copper, sulphur, salt, and alum, and a little gold, hut no coal. The will animals arc the wild boar, bear, wild dog, civet, chamois, wild ox, and those others which are generally distributed in Europe. The lion was formerly an inhabitant of the Thessalian mountains.