xv The Continental Area j 299 



385. Southern Mountain System. The Alps, the 

 most thoroughly studied mountain system in the world, 

 form the orographical centre of Europe. The main chain 

 ( 3 3) runs east and west in a series of ridges separated 

 by longitudinal valleys and cleft by transverse valleys 

 into distinct mountain blocks. Mont Blanc (15,800 feet) 

 is the loftiest summit. On the south the main range 

 slopes down steeply to the low plain of Lombardy, which 

 is enclosed to the south by the Apennines, an exten- 

 sion of the western Alps. The northern range of the Alps 

 descends to a plateau sloping gently to the north and east, 

 and buttressed by the limestone ridges of the Jur-a. To 

 the east the system runs southward through the' Balkan 

 Peninsula as the Dinaric Alps, also a limestone chain, full 

 of the characteristic scenery wrought by erosion and sub- 

 terranean solution. The Balkan Range stretches east and 

 west across the peninsula, sloping down to the low plain of 

 the Danube in the north. The granite heights of the Black 

 Forest Mountains run north of the Jura, and are continued 

 by a broad ridge of Palaeozoic rock, which dips down into 

 the northern plain in an outcrop of the coal-measures. A 

 broken hill country extends north-eastward from the Alpine 

 plateau, sinking in elevation toward the north, and terminat- 

 ing in the Harz Mountains in 52 N. The hilly region 

 rises in the east into the steep heights of the Bohemian 

 Forest, which runs north-west from the eastern extremity 

 of the Alps. The Bohemian Forest Range turns sharply 

 north-eastward as the Erzgebirge or Ore Mountains, the 

 rocks of which are traversed by veins of many metallic 

 ores, and these in turn run eastward as the Sudetic Range. 

 Supported between the three ranges the irregular plateau 

 of Bohemia rises toward the south, and is terminated by the 

 higher land of Moravia. Eastward the Sudetic Range 

 adjoins the fine curve of the Carpathian Mountains, which 

 sweep steeply round the low Hungarian plain, and sink 

 down gradually to north and east into the great Northern 

 Plain. The Carpathian Range terminates in the Tran- 

 sylvanian Alps, which first run parallel to the Balkans, 

 and then converge in the west until they almost 



