Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/806

 786 EUROPE renees, the Carpathians, and the Hartz moun- tains. Copper is less abundant than iron ; the richest mines of this metal are to be found in Hungary, the Saxon and Bohemian mountains, in England, the Ural mountains, and the Scan- dinavian Alps. Lead is wrought in most of the large mountain ranges, tin only in a few places (Cornwall and the Hartz). Mercury is likewise confined to a few spots, as the mines of Idria in Carniola, Zweibrucken in the Palatinate, and the Spanish province of La Mancha. The richest coal fields exist in the N. and W. parts of England, on both sides of the middle re- gion of Scotland, in Ireland, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Catalonia in Spain, and Sardinia. Salt is either obtained by the evap- oration of brine from salt springs, or from de- positories of mineral salt, of which the most extensive are found within the Austro-Hun- garian empire at Wieliczka, in Marmaros, and in Salzburg. Salt springs are numerous along the sides of all mountains belonging to the primitive formation. Large quantities of salt are also collected from the salt lakes of the Crimea. Zinc is wrought in England and Ger- many, and cobalt in Saxony and Sweden. Be- sides these metals, antimony, bismuth, manga- nese, sulphur, alum, &c., are obtained in larger or smaller quantities in the different mountain chains. The animal kingdom of Europe is far less varied than the flora. The diversities of the three zoological regions are inconsiderable, and the only real contrast is between the arctic animals of the extreme north, as the reindeer, white bear, &c., and the beasts of prey of the extreme south, the lynx, wild cat, &c. The original features of the fauna of Europe have been greatly modified by culture. Several spe- cies of wild animals have disappeared entirely in many countries, as the wolf and bear in Great Britain and in some parts of the conti- nent, while others are becoming scarcer from year to year. Thus the aurochs and the elk in some provinces of Eussia, the porcupine in the extreme south, the monkey near Gibral- tar, the chamois and ibex in the higher moun- tain ranges. But if Europe is poor in wild beasts, it is rich in domestic animals. In the northernmost region, as far S. aslat. 63 in Rus- sia, the domesticated reindeer abounds; central Europe has immense numbers of horses, horned cattle, sheep, goats, and hogs; and southern Europe possesses, besides these, mules, camels (in South Russia), and buffaloes. Of small birds Europe has several hundred species, but many of them are only birds of passage. Among those kinds of birds peculiar to certain regions are the flamingo, spoonbill, pelican, and vulture in the south, gray eagle in the north, eider duck, swan, and red grouse in the north and north- east, bee-eater in the southeast, white owl in the extreme north, &c. Various species of turtles excepted, Europe has no large am- phibia. Fish are more abundant on the N. than on the S. coast; herring and codfish are found only in the north, sturgeon in the Rus- sian rivers and seas, anchovies and pilchards on the S. W. coast, tunny fish in the Mediter- ranean. Of insects, several kinds of tarantula and scorpions are peculiar to Europe. The silk- worm is raised principally in the southern countries, and the honey bee in all the temper- ate portions of the continent. The annelids of Europe include the medicinal leech (in Swe- den, Germany, Hungary, and Poland). Europe is abundantly supplied with edible mollusks, but they are found in greater abundance and better quality in the Mediterranean sea than on the 1ST. coast. Radiated animals, zoophytes, &c., also abound on the S. coasts, where some of them (the actinias) are used as food, and where the coral fisheries employ many persons. Gen- erally the S. part of Europe possesses a greater variety of animals and species than the N., while the latter has them in greater numbers. The inhabitants of Europe are the descendants of many different tribes, though the great ma- jority belong to the Indo-European branch of the human family, and would seem to have sprung originally from a common stock. With- out referring to the prehistoric migrations of the various races which are more or less dis- tinctly traceable through philological and ar- cha?ological investigation, and which are treat- ed in other articles, it is sufficient to indicate in this place the positions occupied by the differ- ent peoples at the period of the earliest writ- ten records ; as it is from nations then already settled in the continent that the present popu- lation is almost entirely derived. At the dawn of history, then, the W. and S, W, portions of Europe appear to have been in possession of the Celts and the Iberians. In the east and north- east the Ugrian (Mongolian) races (part of the Scythians of the ancients), of whom the Lapps, Finns, Samoyeds, and Magyars are the present remains, seem to have been the original inhabi- tants. At an early period the Slavs settled in the countries N, of the Black sea, and pressing N. E. gradually dispossessed the Ugrians of their country. Between the Ugrian and Slavic races of the east and the Celts of the west, the Germanic races are found at the earliest period of traditionary history pressing N. to conquer Scandinavia and S. against France and Italy. The southeast of Europe was probably settled from Asia and Africa ; history finds in Greece and Italy two races who afterward became known as the Hellenic and Roman. The former was the first to develop in Europe a high state of culture, which, having been received by the conquering Roman race, was carried over all the countries around the Mediterranean. Hav- ing exhausted their power, the Roman con- querors were in their turn overthrown by the hardy, vigorous, and barbarous northern na- tions, who, after having embraced Christianity, in the course of many centuries developed a new and different civilization. The Heruli, Ostrogoths, Longobards, and other Teutonic tribes, penetrated into and settled in Italy; Suevi, Visigoths, and Vandals in Spain ; Franks