On Physical Geography. 275 



Connexion of all possible chains. The Rhone is a natural limit 

 of the Alps toward the west. With respect to the Jura the 

 question is more doubtful ; nevertheless, as it is separated from 

 the Alps, and united to other mountains, by geognostic as well 

 as by other relations, and as the region between the Alps and 

 the Jura is low, I am inclined to consider it as not belonging to 

 the Alps. Still less can we admit as appertaining to them the 

 inferior mountains of the interior of Germany and France. 

 Thus, the natural limits of the Alps are, — on the east, the 

 plains of Hungary ; on the south, the Adriatic Sea, the Lom- 

 bardo- Venetian plains (the valley of the Po), and the Mediter- 

 ranean Sea ; on the west, the Rhone ; and, on the north, Lake 

 ofGeneva, the Lake of Neuchatel, the Aar, the Rhine, from 

 its junction with the Aar to the Lake of Constance, and the 

 Danube. 



" The Pyrenees are terminated on the east by the Mediter- 

 ranean ; on the west, by the Atlantic ; on the north, by the low 

 region (a great portion of which is almost a perfect plain), wa- 

 tered by the Adour, the Garonne, the Aude, and Jeta; on 

 the south by the district of the Ebro. They have some con- 

 nexions, towards the south-west, with the chain which extends 

 into the Spanish peninsula along the southern coast, and with 

 some other mountains of that peninsula. But the reasons which 

 induce us to separate the Apennines from the Alps, are equally in 

 favour of a separation of these chains from that of the Pyrenees.*" 

 The three chains being thus defined, the author examines 

 and compares them under all imaginable points of view, name- 

 ly, their geographical situation, their extent, their direction 

 their elevation, their acclivities, their summits, the valleys which 

 they form, the rivers which flow from them, the lakes which 

 they embosom, their geognostic formation, their climate and 

 temperature, the height and limit of perpetual snow, the plants 

 and animals which they nourish, and the tribes of men which 

 inhabit them. Each of these points constitutes the subject of 

 ian article replete with interesting facts; and it will be easily 

 perceived that such a sketch is not susceptible of being ex- 

 tracted. We shall confine ourselves to the summary with which 

 the author concludes this comparison. 



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