EUROPE, the smallest of the great conti nents but the most important, distinguished above the others by the character of its popula tion, the superior cultivation of the soil, and the flourishing condition of arts, sciences, industry and commerce.
Topography.— Europe forms a huge penin sula projecting from Asia, and is bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean on the west by the Atlantic Ocean; on the south by the Med iterranean, the Black Sea and the Caucasus Range; on the east by the Caspian Sea, the Ural River and the Ural Mountains. The most northerly point on the mainland is Cape Nord kyn, in Lapland, in lat. 71° 6' N.; the most southerly points are Punta da Tarifa, lat. 36° N., and the Strait of Gibraltar, and Cape Matapan, 1st. 36° 17, which terminates Greece. The most westerly point is Cape Roca in Portugal, in long. 9° 28' W:, while Ekaterinburg is in long. 36 E From Cape Matapan to North Cape is a direct distance of 2,400 miles, from Cape Saint Vincent to Ekaterinburg, northeast by east, 3,400 miles; area of the continent, about 3,800,000 square miles. Great Britain and Ireland, Ice land, Nova Zembla, Corsica, Sardonia, Sicily, Malta, Crete, the Ionian and the Baleanc Islands are the chief islands of Europe. The shores are very much indented, giving Europe an immense length of coast line (estimated at nearly 50,000 miles). The chief seas or arms of the sea are the White Sea on the north; the North Sea, or the German Ocean, on the west, from which branches off the great gulf or in land sea known as the Baltic; the English Chan nel, between England and France; the Mediter ranean, communicating with the Atlantic by the Strait of Gibraltar (at one point only 19 miles wide) ; the Adriatic and the .1Egean seas, branching off from the Mediterranean, and the Black Sea, connected the /Egean Sea through the Hellespont, Sea of Marmora and Bosporus.
The mountains form several distinct groups or systems of very different geological dates, the loftiest mountain masses being in the south central region. The Scandinavian mountains in the northwest, to which the great northern peninsula owes its form, extend above 900 miles from the Polar Sea to the southern point of Norway. The highest summits are about 8,000
feet. The Alps, the highest mountains in Eu rope (unless Mount Elbruz in the Caucasus is claimed as European), extend from the Medi terranean first in a northerly and then in an easterly direction, and attain their greatest ele vation in Mont Blanc (15,781 feet), Monte Rosa and other summits. Branching off from the Alps, though not geologically connected with them, are the Apennines, which run south east, through Italy, constituting the central ridge of the peninsula. The highest summit is Monte Corno (9,541 feet). Mount Vesuvius, the cele brated volcano in the south of the peninsula, is quite distinct from the Apennines. By south eastern extensions the Alps are connected with the Balkan and the Despoto-Dagh of the south eastern peninsula of Europe. Among the moun tains of southwestern Europe are several mas sive chains, the loftiest summits being in the Pyrenees, and in the Sierra Nevada in the south of the Iberian Peninsula. The highest point in the former, La Maladetta or Mont Maudit, has an elevation of 11,165 feet; Mulahaven, in the latter, is 11,703 feet, and capped by per petual snow. West and northwest of the Alps are the Cevennes, Jura and Vosges; north and northeast, the Harz, the Thiiringerwald Moun tains the Fichtelgebirge, the Erzgebirge and Bohmerwaldgebirge. Farther to the east the Carpathian chain encloses the greatplain of Hungary, attaining an elevation of 8,000 or 8,500 feet. The Ural Mountains between • Eu rope and Asia reach the height of 5,540 feet. Besides Vesuvius two other volcanoes are Etna in Sicily, and Hecla in Iceland. A great part of northern and eastern Europe is level. The egreat plains of North Europe occupies part of France, western and northern Belgium, Hol land the northern provinces of Germany, and the greater part of Russia. A large portion of this plain, extending through Holland and North Germany, is a low sandy level not in frequently protected from inroads of the sea only by means of strong dykes. The other great plains of Europe are the plain of Lom bardy (the most fertile district Europe) and the plain of Hungary. Part of southern and southeastern Russia consists of steppes.