xv The Continental Area 293 



Range which cap the Central Ridge, and dipping in the 

 west and north to a low plain with some small depressions, 

 called shotts^ below sea-level. 



v 378. Eurasia, containing one-third of the land of the 

 globe and occupying the central part of the Eastern World 

 Ridge, when looked at largely, shows the typical features of 

 a triangular outline and a mountainous axis giving a long 

 and a short slope to the land, and supporting a plateau of 

 internal drainage. It is the least tropical of the continents, 

 only the three south-eastern peninsulas crossing the tropic 

 of Cancer. The greatest length of Eurasia is about 7000 

 miles, from Cape Roca in 9 W. to East Cape on Bering 

 Sea in 170 W., the continent extending more than half- 

 way round the Earth. The greatest breadth is about 5000 

 miles, along the meridian of 105 E., from Cape Chelyuskin 

 in 77^ N. to Cape Buru in ij N. at the extremity of 

 the Malay Peninsula. More than one-quarter of this vast 

 area slopes together, forming basins of internal drainage, 

 and almost a quarter slopes north toward the Arctic Sea, 

 giving a peculiarly inaccessible character to half the conti- 

 nent and tending to increase the severity of its continental 

 climate. The low plain of Eurasia forms a great triangle 

 with its base along the Arctic Sea. This is divided into a 

 smaller western and a larger eastern portion by the low belt 

 of the Ural Mountains in 60 E., and maybe taken as form- 

 ing the boundary between Europe and Asia. A section 

 of the continent, along the meridian of 90 E. (Fig. 62), 

 gives a general idea of the structure. The main features of 

 the west coast of Europe correspond on a smaller scale 

 with the east coast of Asia the Scandinavian peninsula 

 answering to Kamchatka, the Baltic to the Sea of Okhotsk, 

 the British Islands and North Sea to the islands and Sea 

 of Japan. Similar resemblances connect the south coasts. 

 Spain and Arabia are both square and massive plateaux ; 

 Italy and India are both separated from the continent by a 

 low plain under a lofty mountain wall, and taper southward, 

 ending in a large island ; and the Balkan peninsula, like 

 Indo-China, is mountainous, deeply indented, and termi- 

 nates in an archipelago. 



