ALPS. The word Alp is of Celtic origin, and signifies, according to some authorities, "white," and according to others. "high." Thus the Alps may be simply the White Mountains, or the nigh Mountains. The name is applied to a mountain system of Southern Europe, which in cludes most of Switzerland, and extends into France on the west, Austria on the east, Italy on the south, and Germany on the north, and covers altogether an area of some 80,000 to 90,000 square miles (Map: Europe, D 4).
The system rises from the shore of the Mediter ranean west of the Gulf of Genoa, and at first trends northward to the west of the plain of Lombardy; then swinging to the east, it stretches with an east and west trend through Switzer land and across the north of Italy into Austria. The total length of the system is upward of 600 miles, and its breadth ranges from about 75 to about 150 miles. It contains hundreds of peaks exceeding 10,000 feet, and its crowning summit, Mont Blanc, has an altitude of 15,781 feet. In the extreme northeast, where the Al pine system reaches the Danube, it is met by a range belonging to the great system of the Car pathian and Sudetic Mountains. On the west the Alps are connected with the Jura Mountains. In the south the Apennines form a great con tinuation, extending as far south as Sicily. The
Cevennes in southeastern France constitute in a measure a connecting link with the Pyrenees,. The range of mountains known as the Dinaric Alps, on the borders of Dalmatia and Bos nia, are a connecting link between the Alpine system and the Balkan Mountains. The slopes upon the south, to the plains of Lombardy, are much more abrupt than those on the north to the lower lands of Switzerland and Aus tria. This ir-oad, complex mountain region is the source of many of the great rivers of Europe.. The western slope of that part of the range which trends north from the Mediterranean shore is drained into that sea by the Rhone, while the east slope of this part, together with the southern slope throughout Italy, is drained into the Adriatic mainly by the River Po. The north slope is drained into the North Sea by the Rhine, and into the Black Sea by the Danube, which flows around the eastern end of the moun tain system. The head branches of these rivers, aided by the glaciers at their sources, have erod ed this mountain mass into a complex of short ranges and ridges, many of which have received distinctive names.