300 The Realm of Nature CHAP. 



meet that range. West of the Alps the Vosges Moun- 

 tains run northward, separated by a wide flat valley 

 from the parallel range of the Black Forest, and terminat- 

 ing in the same belt of ancient rock. Separated by the 

 narrow valley of the Rhone on the west, the Auvergne 

 plateau, studded with extinct volcanic cones, rises in a 

 steep terraced slope known as the Cevennes Mountains, and 

 sinks more gently to the low plain on the north and west. 

 The rugged high plain of the Iberian Peninsula is shut off 

 from Northern Europe by the straight line of the Pyrenees, 

 one of the steepest mountain ranges, and presenting some 

 of the finest examples of erosion in the form of cirques or 

 round valleys. 



386. Elvers of Western Europe. In Western Europe 

 the main watershed (see Plate XIII.) lies, as a rule, nearer the 

 south coast than the north, following roughly the Pyrenees, the 

 Cevennes, the Vosges, the Alps, the Black Forest, the Fran- 

 conian Jura, the Moravian Plateau, and the Northern Car- 

 pathians. Thus the northern slope is long, and the southern 

 slope short. In Eastern Europe the watershed is nearer the 

 north coast, crossing the low plain on a ridge of very slight 

 elevation, which stretches from the Carpathians north-east- 

 ward to the Urals, and swells up into the Valdai Hills about 

 the centre. This gives a comparatively short slope to the 

 north and a long slope to the south. The rivers of Western 

 Europe, the Guadiana, Tagus, and Douro in the Iberian 

 Peninsula, and the Garonne, Loire, and Seine from the 

 Auvergne high plain, flow to the Atlantic Ocean directly. 

 The rivers of Central Europe all originate in the Alps and 

 its connected ranges. The Rhone and Rhine flow in 

 opposite directions along the great longitudinal valley which 

 bisects the Alps. The Rhone, descending from its source 

 near the great central mass of the St. Gothard, enters the 

 Lake of Geneva, escapes westward between the Alps and 

 Jura, and sweeps south to the Mediterranean, beneath the 

 steep front of the Cevennes. Flowing east, the Rhine turns 

 northward into Lake Constance, passes out westward between 

 the Alps and the Black Forest, turns north through the wide 

 valley between the Black Forest and the Vosges, crosses the 



