Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 07.djvu/318

* EUROPE. 280 EUROPE. iteg and schists, while the lowlands are floored in great part with Jurassic beds. The northern half of. Europe was in recent geologic time cov- ered by a great ice sheet, which in its retreat has covered the land with glacial deposits, besides having by its erosion greatly modified the sur- face, changing the courses of the streams and scouring out lake basins. The soils of this por- tion of Europe are in great part composed of glacial -ilt and detritus, transported by tin- great sheet of ice. Carboniferous coal deposits have been found in many part- of Europe between the parallels 40 3 and tin X. i in eastern, southern, and west central Russia, Austria - Hungary. Germany. Belgium, France, Spain, Scotland. England, and Wales. Those of England and Wales are of special value and importance; the proximity of the English coal-mines to the sea and the leading coal-buying countries make England the greatest coal-export- er. The rich distribution of iron ores, together' with the abundant occurrence of coal, gave Eu- rope its manufacturing supremacy. Great Britain, mining coal and iron in the same or adjoining fields, produces about one-half of all the pig iron of Europe, drawing also, like Germany, upon the superior steel-making ores of Spain and Sweden. Nearly two-thirds of the iron of Germany comes from the west, where iron is closely associat- ed with the coal-fields of the Saar. Belgium, mining iron on the coal-fields around Namur and Liege, has been called Little England, because coal and iron occur together. The best iron ores of Austria are not found near her coal, and this is true also in France except around Le Creusot and Saint-Etienne. Xine-tenths of the iron mined in France comes from the great field on which the city of Xancy stands. Iron is widely dis- tributed in Russia, but many of the mines are not yet connected by rail with the main sources of coal. Germany is the world's largest source of zinc, and the Belgian mines are among the richest in Europe. The tin-mines of England are the larg- est European sources of this metal. Russia sup- plies nearly all the platinum of the world. Most of the sulphur used in the industries comes from Sicily and South Italy. Russia is the fourth largest producer of gold in the world, Germany the fourth and Spain the sixth largest pro- ducer of silver: Spain and Portugal are. next to the United States, the largest producers of copper, and Spain provides the largest supply of quicksilver, and is surpassed only by the United States in lead. Nearly every country produces its own -all. either from nick bed- or by evapo- rating sea-water in -aline marshes, the Nether- lands and Switzerland are lacking in useful min- erals, and Italy has no coal to -melt her iron Climate. Europe is the only continent thai lie- entirely ruitside of the tropica] zone, and only a small pari of it is included in the frigid zonfe. The ameliorating influences of the North Atlantic and the westerly winds Hint blow over it are felt farea-t along the shores of the Arctic Ocean, so that at Katharine Haven, on Hie Murman Cos t, the harbor i- practically ice free the year around. Thus, though the continent extends several de grees of latitude north of the Arctic Circle, verj little of it is under polar influences, The conti nent lies in t ! erate zone and oi ill i he es in the same latitude it has tb. mild- est a ■ : i iiiri.it.-. The warm winds from the Atlantic, the prevailing winds, have almost everywhere free access into the interior, sweeping up the arms of the sea and across the low coasts and plains, not only mitigating high and low temperatures, but also giving wide dis- tribution to the rainfall. The fact, also, that the mean elevation of the continent above the sea is very much lower than that of any other conti- nent excepting Australia (only about 950 feet, according to the results obtained by Supan and Be Lapparent), emphasizes the prevailing tem- perate influences. In all parts of the continent there is sufficient warmth and rainfall for agri- culture except where farm operations are pre- vented by cold in the extreme north and in the highest mountain regions, and by dryness on the salt steppes of the Caspian Sea. The eastern part of Europe, however, is re- mote from the influence of the sea, and has the continental rather than the sea climate. The mean annual temperature, therefore, declines not only from south to north, but also, except along the Mediterranean, from west to east, e.g.: Greenwich, -1!>.7° F. ; Berlin, 48.4°; Warsaw, 44.9°; Saratov (East Russia), 41.7° — these four places being in nearly the same latitude. But while the yearly mean of temperature is lower in the east than in the west of Europe, the summer temperature is higher in the east than in the west, because the interior land-mass becomes more heated than the regions bordering the sea with their more equable climate. In the south the influence of the Mediterranean is to impart to the countries along its shores a very uniform climate, the Alpine system also contributing to this advantage by warding off the cold northeast winds. The precipitation decreases with distance from the Atlantic, the eastern part of the continent be- ing much drier than the western, and driest along the north coasts of the Black and Caspian seas, where forest gives place to steppe. In no region, however, is the country so dry as to be- come a desert. In the northern half of Europe the precipitation is quite well distributed throughout the year, while winter rains predomi- nate in all the Mediterranean countries. In a large part of Spain, for example, irrigation is the basis of agriculture because most of the rain falls after the growing season. Many local con- ditions modify both temperature and quantity of precipitation. The Scandinavian mountains, for example, are the cause of the larger precipita- tion on the west than on the east side of the peninsula: they also exclude the icy northeast winds of winter from the west harbors of Nor- way, which are ice-free. I'i.oka. If temperature be taken as the deter- minant — perhaps the simplest method in classify- ing the flora of Europe — three general regions are observed which more or less overlap one another. In general, the limits of these regions van - with the isotherms and with the coa-t line-, but are modified by mountain ranges ami rivers; the summits "f the former affording homes to boreal Species. Hie valleys of the latter allowing less hardy plant- to extend inland into colder locali- t ie- than they could otherwise reach. The Arctic region, mainly tundra, which in northwestern Europe finds its southern boundary on the poleward side of the Arctic Circle, and in Hie northeastern part of the continent extends considerably to the south of tins line, is char