Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 04.djvu/89

EUROPA "Suppliants," "Ion," Hercules Furens," "Andromache," "Troades," "Electra," "Helena," "Iphigenia Among the Tauri," "Orestes," "Phœnissæ," "Bacchæ," "Iphigenia at Aulis," and "Cyclops."  EUROPA (-rō-pä), in Greek mythology, the daughter of Agenor, King of the Phœnicians, and the sister of Cadmus. The fable relates that she was abducted by Jupiter, who for that occasion had assumed the form of a bull, and swam with his prize to the island of Crete. Here Europe bore to him Minos, Sarpedon, and Rhadamanthus.  EUROPE, the smallest of the great continents, but the most important in the history of civilization for the last 2,000 years. It forms a huge peninsula pro- jecting from Asia, and is bounded on the N. by the Arctic Ocean; on the W. by the Atlantic Ocean; on the S. by the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, and the Caucasus range; on the E. by the Cas- pian Sea, the Ural River, and the Ural Mountains. The most northerly point on the mainland is Cape Nordkyn, in Lap- land, lat. 71°6'; the most southerly points are Punta da Tarifa, lat. 36" N., in the Strait of Gibraltar, and Cape Matapan, lat. 36" 17', which terminates Greece. The most west- erly point is Cape Roca in Portugal, in Ion. 9° 28' W., while Ekaterinburg is in Ion. 60° 36' E. From Cape Matapan to North Cape is a direct distance of 2,400 miles, from Cape St. Vincent to Ekate- rinburg, N. E. by E., 3,400 miles; area of the continent, about 3,800,000 square miles. Great Britain and Ireland, Ice- land, Nova Zembla, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, Malta, Crete, the Ionian and the Balearic Islands are the chief islands of Europe. The shores are very much in- dented, 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 N.; the North Sea or German Ocean, on the W., from which branches off the great gulf or inland sea known as the Baltic; the English Channel, be- tween England and France; the Medi- teri'anean, communicating with the Atlantic by the Strait of Gibraltar (at one point only 19 miles wide); the Adriatic and Archipelago, branching off from the Mediterranean, and the Black Sea, connected with the Archipelago through the Hellespont, Sea of Mai*- mora, and Bosporus. Siirface. — The mountains form several distinct groups or systems of very dif- ferent geological dates, the loftiest mountain nasses being in the S. central region. The Scandinavian mountains in the N. W., to which the great northern Vol. IV — Cyc— E 61 EUROPE peninsula owes its form, extend above 900 miles from the Polar Sea to the S. point of Norway. The highest summits are about 8,000 feet. The Alps, the high- est mountains in Europe (unless Mount Elbruz in the Caucasus is claimed as European), extend from the Mediter- ranean first in a northerly and then in an easterly direction, and attain their greatest elevation in Mont Blanc (15,- 781 feet), Monte Rosa, and other sum- mits. Branching off from the Alps, though not geologically connected with them, are the Apennines, which run S. E. through Italy, constituting the cen- tral ridge of the peninsula. The high- est summit is Monte Corno (9,541 feet). Mount Vesuvius, the celebrated volcano in the S. of the peninsula, is quite dis- tinct from the Apennines. By south- eastern extensions the Alps are con- nected with the Balkan and the Despoto- Dagh of the southeastern peninsula of Europe. Among the mountains of south- western Europe are several massive chains, the loftiest summits being in the Pyrenees, and in the Sierra Nevada in the S. of the Iberian Peninsula. The highest point in the former. La Mala- detta or Mount Maudit, has an elevation of 11,165 feet; Mulahacen, in the latter, is 11,703 feet, and capped by perpetual snow. West and N. W. of the Alps are the Cevennes, Jura, and Vosges; N. and N. E., the Harz, the Thiiringerwald Mountains, the Fichtelgebirge, the Erzgebirge and Bohmerwaldgebirge. Farther to the E. the Carpathian chain incloses the great plain of Hungary, at- taining an elevation of 8,000 or 8,500 feet. The Ural Mountains between Europe and Asia reach the height of 5,540 feet. Besides Vesuvius other two volcanoes are Etna in Sicily, and Hecla in Iceland. A great part of northern and eastern Europe is level. The "great plain" of north Europe occupies part of France, western and northern Belgium, Holland, the northern provinces of Ger- many, and the greater part of Russia. The other great plains of Europe are the plain of Lombardy and the plain of Hungary. Part of southern and south- eastern Russia consists of steppes. Rivers and Lakes. — The main Euro- pean watershed runs in a winding direc- tion .'rom S. Yf. to N. E., at its north- eastern extremity being of very slight elevation. From the Alps descend some of the largest of the European rivers, the Rhine, the Rhone, and the Po, while the Danube, a still greater stream, rises in the Black Forest N. of the Alps. The Volga, which enters the Caspian Sea, an inland sheet without outlet, is the longest of European rivers, having a direct length of nearly 1,700 miles, in-

