CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



tertiary era. Nor is it in appearance alone that 

 these distinctions are interesting ; the cold barren 

 subsoil of a granitic district, altogether independ- 

 ent of elevation, differs as widely in its vegetable 

 exhibitions from those of a fertile and congenial 

 trap, as a cultured garden does from a moorland 

 wild. 



Respecting the classification of mountains, 

 various plans have been adopted by continental 

 writers ; but most of them are objectionable, as 

 involving geological theories : we shall adhere 

 to that simpler arrangement which takes into 

 account merely their geographical position and 

 connection. Those of Europe have been clas- 

 sified into a number of systems, some of which 

 are continental, others insular. Laying aside 

 minutiae, the following seem to be distinct and 

 natural : I. The Hesperian, embracing the moun- 

 tain-ridges of the Spanish peninsula all of which 

 maintain a wonderful parallelism in position, as 

 well as unity of character, and whose extreme 

 culminating point is Maladetta, in the Pyrenees, 

 11,168 feet. 2. The Gallic system, including all 

 the hilly eminences in France which lie to the 

 north of the Garonne, west of the Rhone, and south 

 of the Rhine. None of these are of great age, or 

 of great elevation, the highest being a peak of the 

 Plomb de Cantal, in Auvergne, 6113 feet. 3. The 

 Alpine system, embracing all those ridges and 

 branches which radiate from the great Alpine 

 range of Switzerland, such as the Maritime, 

 Cottian, Pennine, Rhetian, None, and other 

 Alps ; the Apennines in Italy, and the Balkan or 

 Haemus group in Turkey. The highest or cul- 

 minating point is Mont Blanc, in Switzerland, 

 15,732 feet. 4. The Hercynio-Carpathian system, 

 including all the mountains and eminences compre- 

 hended between the Rhine, Dnieper, and Danube, 

 the plains of Northern Germany and Western 

 Poland. The highest point in this system is Lom- 

 nitz, in the Central Carpathians, upwards of 8000 

 feet 5. The Scandinavian, a system of the highest 

 antiquity, embracing the well-defined chains of 

 Norway, Sweden, and Lapland, the extreme height 

 of which does not much exceed 8000 feet. 6. The 

 Ural system or chain, which forms the boundary- 

 line between Europe and Asia, and rises in its 

 highest part to between 5000 and 6000 feet. 

 Lastly, the Britannic system, consisting of a 

 number of detached chains, as the Grampians, 

 Cheviots, and Welsh mountains, the highest point 

 of which is Ben Nevis, in Inverness-shire, 4406 

 feet. All of these systems, as axes of elevation, 

 have long ago become fixed and permanent ; none 

 of them has for the last two thousand years shewn 

 symptoms of volcanic activity : Hecla, Vesuvius, 

 and Etna, the only active volcanoes in Europe, 

 seem to point to future upheavals. 



The mountains of Asia may be all traced from 

 that vast central plateau already adverted to, 

 which forms, as it were, the nucleus of the con- 

 tinent. Omitting ranges of minor altitude, we 

 may enumerate the Altai, an Alpine girdle 

 (greatest height 12,790 feet), running along the 

 5oth parallel of latitude from the 84 of longitude 

 to Lake Baikal, and continued eastward in the 

 Daurian system and Stannovoi mountains, which 

 are supposed to stretch to Behring's Strait ; the 

 Khin-gan range, bounding the Desert of Gobi on 

 the east, but 'of unknown altitude ; the Thian- 

 shan and Kiten-lun, two ranges beginning in the 



56 



west of Chinese Tartary, and running eastward 

 the former about the parallel of 42, the latter 

 about 36 into China ; attaining in some summits 

 a height of upwards of 20,000 feet, and remarkable 

 as containing active volcanoes at a distance of 

 1500 miles from the sea; the great Himalaya 

 mass, extending about 1500 miles in length, and 

 from 100 to 100 across, rising from the Indian 

 side by stages of 4000, 8000, and 11,000 feet 

 to a mean elevation of 18,000 or 20,000 feet, 

 attains in several peaks the height of about 

 25,000, in Dhawalagiri 26,826, in Kinchinjunga 

 28,156, and in Mount Everest 29,000 probably 

 the greatest elevation on the globe ; the Hindu 

 Kush, with their southern ramifications, which 

 may be regarded as prolongations of the Hima- 

 laya ; and, lastly, the Tauro-Caucasian system, 

 diversifying the west of Asia with numerous 

 ridges and peaks, the highest of which are Elburz, 

 18,493 feet, and Demavend, 21,000. In connection 

 with these systems and ridges are active volca- 

 noes, as in Kamtchatka, Japan, the Thian-shan 

 ranges, &c. 



The mountain-systems of Africa are as yet only 

 partially known. The hills of Cape Colony rise 

 from Table Mount, 3582 feet, to the summits of 

 the Nieuveldt and Snieuveldt mountains, in the 

 north of the colony, which are estimated at 7000- 

 10,000 feet ; the spaces between the ranges being 

 broad elevated terraces or karoos, connected by 

 shrubby kloofs or valleys. Beginning with Cape 

 Colony, one vast table-land, the greatest on the 

 globe, occupies the south of the African continent, 

 stretching on the east as far north as Nubia. The 

 mountain-ranges seen running parallel with the 

 east coast form the border of this table-land ; 

 the highest of them yet seen is Kilima-Njaro, 

 between 3 and 4 south latitude, estimated at 

 20,000 feet. The Abyssinian mountains form a 

 terminating cluster to the range, reaching in the 

 Abba Jared, at the extremity of the table-land, the 

 height of 15,000 feet. The Cameroons, on the 

 west, are above 13,000 feet ; some of the summits 

 around the great equatorial lakes in the interior 

 rise to 10,000, but none of them, apparently, into 

 the region of snow. On the north, between the 

 Sahara and the Mediterranean, the Atlas system 

 is well defined, and here an elevation of 11,400 

 feet has been ascertained. 



The mountains which traverse South America 

 may be ranked under two systems the Cordillera 

 of the Andes, and the Mountains of Brazil. The 

 former, in several parallel chains, extend along 

 the western edge of the continent from the Strait 

 of Magellan to the Caribbean Sea, in many places 

 spreading out over a breadth of several hundred 

 miles, embracing lofty table-lands, containing 

 mountain lakes, and everywhere intersected by 

 steep narrow ravines and passes. A remarkable 

 feature of the Andes is that the parallel ranges 

 frequently come together, forming lofty table-lands 

 called knots. At Popayan, the main chain divides 

 into three ridges, one of which, shooting off to the 

 north-west, passes into the Isthmus of Panama ; 

 a second separates the valleys of the Cauca and 

 Magdalena ; and a third, passing off to the north- 

 east, separates the valley of the Magdalena from 

 the plains of the Meta. The most elevated portion 

 of the system is the Bolivian Andes, from south 

 lat. 21 to 14, numerous summits of which rise to 

 13,000-22,000 feet. The highest peak of the 



