Mountain Chains of Europe and Asia. 5 



traced skirting the whole southern coast of the Caspian Sea. 

 There is here, I believe, some interruption of continuity; but 

 we must surely look on the subject in a more general point 

 of view, and regard the general arrangement of nearly con- 

 tiguous groups as sufficient evidence of the prevailing direction 

 of grand lines of elevation without requiring the absolute con- 

 tinuity of a single unbroken chain. In this immediate neigh- 

 bourhood the range of the Caucasus is parallel, and probably 

 a lateral dependency on the great Himmalayan line, of which, 

 however, the ranges of the Taurus, and the general mountain 

 country of Asia Minor, present the most direct prolongation ; 

 and as these are separated only by a narrow strait from the 

 great ridge of the Balkan (on which we may consider the 

 Grecian highlands as dependencies), we thus trace the system 

 into Europe. It here becomes, indeed, more broken and 

 flexuous ; but it is still impossible to cast an eye on any accu- 

 rate map without being struck by the mutual relation and de- 

 pendence of the several chains. 



Crossing the Danube, the Eastern Carpathians of Transyl- 

 vania take up the line, which is here considerably curved, but 

 resumes its western direction in the Western Carpathians 

 skirting Hungary ; and this is prolonged through the Riesen- 

 gebirge and Erzegebirge. In circling the basin of Bohemia, 

 another great flexure occurs ; indeed, we can compare the 

 whole configuration of this district only to those vast crateri- 

 form depressions, surrounded by a mountainous border, which 

 the telescopic appearance of the moon presents; still, largely 

 viewed, we must undoubtedly consider the whole of this circu- 

 lar mountain zone as a single system of elevations. This sy- 

 stem, by its south-eastern branch the Bohemer Wald, ap- 

 proximates close to the Alps ; and although, on the west, the 

 valley of the Rhone separates these latter summits by a broad 

 interval from those of the Cevennes, still the general relief, 

 as I may call it, of the whole surface of France, forbids us 

 to consider these groups as more than distinct summits of a 

 common system of elevation. The Cevennes in like manner 

 conduct us to the Pyrenees; and the whole of Spain can be 

 considered as little else than a general mass of highlands, di- 

 vuied into distinct groups (all of which have a tendency to 

 range east and west,) by the valleys of the principal rivers. 



W. D. C 



