Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/803

 EUROPE 783 the North sea its width is less than 100 m., in the extreme east it is 1,400 m. wide. Its entire length is near 2,300 m., its area about 2,000,000 sq. m. Proceeding from the heaths of West Brabant in an easterly direction, even beyond the Ural passes to the steppes on the western slope of the Altai mountains, 80 degrees of longitude, no elevation of over 1,200 or 1,300 ft. above the level of the sea is met with. The western or European portion of this plain appears to have formed, after the commence- ment of the tertiary period of geology, the bed of the sea. It includes the basins of the Baltic and White seas. A part of it is traversed by rivers flowing northward from the Alps, the mountains of central Germany, and the Carpa- thians. To the eastward the watershed be- tween the Baltic and the Black and Caspian seas is only a few hundred feet in elevation ; commencing at a spur of the Carpathians near the source of the Dniester, it runs through the Russian governments of Volhynia, Grodno, Minsk, Mohilev, Smolensk, Pskov, Tver, Nov- gorod, and Vologda, to the Ural range. Though interspersed with marshes, bogs, and heaths, this immense plain is susceptible of high cul- ture, but nowhere is the soil so fertile as to pro- duce crops without laborious diligence. Con- nected with this large plain are two lesser ones, in France and in Hungary. The mountain sys- tem of southern and western Europe is grouped around the central mass of the Alps, which forms the summit and the principal watershed of the continent. The Alps, covering an area of nearly 100,000 sq. m., slope down on four sides toward France, Germany, Hungary, and Italy. The highest elevation of this system and of all Europe is Mont Blanc (15,732 ft., according to Bruguiere). The lowest limit of perpetual snow in the Alps is 8,760 ft., between lat. 45 and 46 N. Connected with the Alpine system are the mountain systems of the three southern peninsulas, viz., the Pyrenean system, the Apennines, and the Balkan, and also the group of the Carpathian and Sudetic moun- tains. The Pyrenees stretch from E. to W. for 240 m., but, including the Cantabrian moun- tains, their length is 500 m. Their S. side, to- ward Spain, is rugged and precipitous, while on the north they descend gradually by a series of parallel ridges into France. They send four principal branches through the Iberian penin- sula, the whole system covering a superficial area of about 200,000 sq. m. The culminating point of the system, in its widest acceptation, is the Cerro de Mulhacen in the Sierra Nevada (11,654 ft). The Apennines, stretching from the Alps through the entire length of Italy to the strait of Messina, cover an area of 60,000 sq. m. Their highest summit is Monte Corno (9,542 ft.). The Carpathian and Sudetic moun- tains, with the Erzgebirge and the Bohemian Forest, form one chain extending 1,200 m. in length, from the Danube in Hungary to the same river in Bavaria. Their highest eleva- tions, from 6,000 to 9,000 ft., are in Transyl- 306 VOL. vi. 50 vama and Hungary, where they surpass the lower limit of perpetual snow. The Balkan a direct continuation of the Dinaric Alps, sweeps in an irregular curve from the Adriatic to the Black sea. Its principal part is the Hsemus of the ancients. Its general elevation is about 4,000 ft. ; a few of its summits rise about 4,000 ft. higher. Thence one range, including' the ancient Pindus, diverges to the south, dividing Albania from Roumelia, and connecting with the mountains of Greece, the loftiest summits of which attain an elevation of upward of 8,000 ft. Another, the Rhodope of the an- cients, now called Despoto Dagh, diverges fur- ther E. in a S. E. direction, and, traversing western Thrace, reaches the archipelago. The Rilo Dagh, near its starting point, is 9,838 ft. high. Between the two are various branches, one of which includes Mt. Olympus, 9,754 ft. Between the Alpine system proper, the Pyre- nees, and the Atlantic (in France), there are three separate mountain ranges, viz., the Ce- vennes and mountains of Auvergne, the Jura, and the Vosges. The first divides the low country on the Mediterranean and the basin of the Rhone from the plains extending W. to the Atlantic ; its general elevation is from 3,000 to 5,000 ft., though some peaks (Mont Dore, Can- tal, and Mont Mezin) rise to a height of about 6,000 ft. The Jura, of nearly the same eleva- tion, extends along the frontier of France and Switzerland. Further N. the Vosges divide the basin of the Rhine from that of the Moselle, their loftiest summits reaching an altitude of about 4,700 ft. There are several plains, inde- pendent and differing in their principal features from the great northern plain, enclosed by the Alpine system, namely, the basins of the Po, the Rh6ne, and the upper Rhine. Besides the above mentioned ranges, all more or less imme- diately connected with the central system of the Alps, Europe contains in its islands and pen- insulas five distinct mountain systems. They are the Sardo-Corsican, the Tauric, the Brit- ish-Hibernian, the Scandinavian, and the Sar- matian. The Sardo-Corsican, as its designa- tion implies, is the range of mountains stretch- ing from N. to S. through the islands of Corsica and Sardinia; its highest summit, Monte Rotondo in Corsica, has an elevation of 9,054 ft. The Tauric system is confined to the southern portion of the Crimea, its greatest elevation being 4,740 ft. The British- Hibernian system, in Great Britain and Ire- land, is comparatively insignificant, rising in its highest peaks (in Scotland) but little over 4,000 ft. The Scandinavian Alps (Kiolen and Do- vrefield) extend 1,000 m. from N. to S. through the entire length of the Scandinavian peninsula, at a general elevation of from 3,000 to 6,000 ft. The highest summits are Ymes Field, 8,540 ft., Skagtols Tind, 8,061, and the Sneeha3tten, 7,562 ft. In the N. portion the lower limit of perpetual snow is at 3,500 ft. above the level of the sea. The Sarmatian system consists onlv of a few scattered hill chains in Russia,