Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/143

 884 EUROPA. families. The great mountain-zone which forms the base of the three or five southern peninsulas of Eu- rope, and from which its principal northern riYers descend, commences with the promontory of Arta* brum ((7. Fitdsterre), and is terminated by the Hellespont and Propontis. Of this rocky girdle the highest points are the Pie du Midi in the Pyrenees, rising 11,271 feet above the level of the sea; Mont Blanc, 16,800 feet; and the summits of Mt. ^siemns or the Great Balkan. All the other groups or chains, whether, like the Carpathians, running up the centre of the ccHitinent, or, like the Apennines and the Spanish and Greek mountains, descending to its southern extremities, are to be regarded, whatever thdr relative dimensions may be, as second- aries only of the principal zone, — its spun or but* trasses. To the southward these protuberances run for the most part in parallel ridges, such as the sierras of Spain, and the eltiptical hollows of the Apennines; or, like Mount Haeraus, they are split into narrow but profound fissures, intp which the light of day scarcely penetrates. In Spain and Italy the mountains in general decline gradually as they approach the Mediterranean, whereas the Grecian ranges project strongly into the sea, and re-appear in the numerous rocky islands which stud the Aegean. The general geological features of this zone are, in the I^rian mountains, granite, cr3rstallin6 strata, and primary fossiliferons rocks. On each side of the central chain of the Alps calcareous rocks form two great mountain-zones, and rise occasionally to an altitude of ten or twelve thousand feet. Crys- talline schists of various kinds generally constitute the pinnacles of the Alpine crest and its o&ets. The Apennines and the Sicilian mountains are mostly calcareous rocks. Secondary limestones occupy a great portion of the high land of Eastern Europe. Beginning from the western extremity of this zone, we find that the northern or Gaulish side of the Pyrenees is the more precipitous and abrupt, and its summits so notched and ragged that fram the plains below they appear like the teeth of a saw, whence the term Sierra (Mens Serratos) has been appropriated to the Iberian mountains, where this conformation especially prevails. On the Spanish side, the Pyrenees descend towards the Ebro in gipintic terraces separated by deep precipitous valleys. The greatest breadth of the Pyrenean range is about 60 miles, and its length 270. On the northern flank, the most conspicuous off- sets of the zone are the volcanic mountains of Au- vergne and the Cevennes. These, indeed, are the link between the more elevated masses of Western and Eastern Europe. The projections of the Ce- vennes extend to the right bank of the Rhone, and the Jura mountains of the Alpine range. The northern provinces of France form a portion of that immense plain, which, without taking into account smaller eminences and undulations, extends from the Seine to the shores of the Baltic and the Bhick seas, through Belgium, Prussia, Poland, and Russia. The European mountain-zone attains a greater altitude as it proceeds eastward. About the 52nd parallel of north latitude, it begins to ascend by ter- races, groups, and concentric or pArallel chains, until it reaches its highest elevation in the range of the Alps and the Balkan. The immediate projections of the Alps, on the side of Cisalpine Gaul or Lom- bardy, are comparatively short, but rapid and abrupt. The spine of the Italian peninsuUi, however, the chain of the Apennines, as well as the Sicilian EUIiOPA. mountains, are really continuations of the Alps^erea as the Grecian mountains through Northern Hellas as fiur as the Laoonian highlands are enatinnatkaa of Mount Haemna. The Canuc or more properfy the Julian Alps connect, under the 18th meiilian, the Balkan with the centre of the rai^ of the Helvetian and Italian Alps. The river* sjatem «f Italy has no features in common with those «f Spain. In the btter peninsula the valleys inclosed by the sierras were, in some remote era, the basins of lakes, of which the Spanish rivers are the residn- aries: whereas the watershed of the Apennines is generally brief and ra]nd; and the Amo, the Tiber, the Liris, &c have in all ages been subject to saddn overflow of theur waters, and to as sadden snlsi- denoe. In Cisalpine Gaul, indeed, a netwoik of streams, combining into central reservoirs, — the Po^ the Athesis, &c, — furmsfaea, with little aid fpcm man, a natural irrigation to the rich alhivial plaiaa. The whole r^on was probably at one period a vast lake, of which the banks were the Alpine projectiaos and the windings of the Apennines, and which gra- dually rose with the constant deposition of soil firaa those mountains. The rivers & of the Po whid flow into the Adriatic sea are generally incanader- able in their length or volume (^ water; but thow which discharge themselves into the Lower Sea, the Mare Etruscum, descend more gradually, and in the centre of the peninsula at least more equally sab- serve the purposes of tillage and inland navigatioD. Calcareous rocks constitute the principid range of the Apennines, and fill the greater port of ^aHj. But at least half of that island b covered with the newer Pleiocene strata; while zones of the dder Plnocene period, filled with organic remains, ooror each flank of the Apennines. The principal projections of the zone north of Italv are the Hyrcanian mountuns, the Sudetes, and the Carpathian mountains. The former stretch in three parallel ridges from the right bank of the Bhine, about lat 51^ or 52^ N., to the centre of Gennanj. Eastward of this group the Sudetes b^;in, and tci^ minate at the plain of the Upper Oder. At this point they are connected with the Carpathians, which, however, difiRer in configuration from the oiber fimbs of the range. For they are not a single chain, hot groups, connected by elevated plains, and attaining at certain points — as at Mount Tatra, under the 20th meridian — a considerable altitude. The breadth of the Alpne chain is greatest between the 15th and 16th meridians, and least at its junction with the Balkan, under the 18th, where it does not exceed 80 miles. The Balkan, in respect of its elevated tabfe-landa, is a connecting link between the mountain-systems of Europe and Asia. With the exoeptioa of the Jura, this tabular form does not occur in the central Alps. On the other hand, the great lakes which are so frequently met with in European mountains, are rarely found, except in the Altaian range, in those of Asia. Mount Haemus, the third of the mountain-bases of ancient Europe, b^ins near the town of Sophia, whence it runs along an elevated terrace for 600 miles to the Black sea. Longi- tudinal valleys of great fertility separate its pandid ridges; but its chains are teat and torn in all di- rections by profound and precipitous chasms, bj which alone the range is permeable. Granite forms the bases of the mountain-system of Eastern Europe; but it rarely pierces the crust of crystalline scUst and secondary limestones. Calcareoos rocks, indeed,