NATURAL HISTORY OF 



EUROPE. 



EUROPE, in many respects, is only the western prolon- 

 gation of Asia, where features of the great central 

 chain of mountains similarly break into ramified sys- 

 tems, turned to the Atlantic ; while, on the east, they 

 end or border the Pacific. On each coast there are 

 mighty islands, containing the most energetic popula- 

 tions ; and on each continent are the two forms or races 

 of mankind, which alone have advanced in mental 

 development, without any common point of departure 

 hitherto philosophically substantiated. Both quarters 

 have volcanic spiracula in the seas beyond them and 

 on the shores, though not in the same degrees of activity ; 

 for, while the craters of many on the mainland of Kam- 

 schatka, in the Japanese islands, and on multiplied 

 points in the Chinese and neighbouring seas, are inces- 

 santly incandescent, those of Europe, with exception of 

 the Italian, are dormant or extinct; and though the 

 Azorean cluster turmoils on a smaller scale, Hecla, in 

 the high north, alone has produced devastations within 

 the period of historical cognizance, sufficient to affect 

 profoundly the permanent interests of a resident popu- 

 lation. At the bifurcations of the European continua- 

 tion of the great mountain chains of central Asia, are 

 dislocations of great extent ; among which, that formed 

 oy the great basin of the Euxine or antique Axinus, is 



