EUROPE 



rias. The Mediterranean coasts are 

 rocky, and in the W. are the edge 

 of a fractured area, the W. Medi- 

 terranean covering a foundered 

 land mass. The E. Adriatic coast 

 is the edge of a mountain ridge like 

 that of the Aegean ; the gulfs of 

 Cattaro, Corinth, and Salonica are 

 flanked by ridges and headlands. 

 Europe's Physical Boundary 



The Baltic and North Seas, in- 

 cluding the English Channel, are 

 shallow, and are really water- 

 covered portions of the great 

 European plain. This implies that 

 the physical boundary of Europe 

 lies well W. of Ireland. It is cus- 

 tomary to indicate the edge of the 

 land, the limit of the deep ocean, by 

 the 100 fathom (600 ft.) line. This 

 line runs to the coast in the Bay of 

 Biscay, sweeps round the British 

 Isles, runs in a well-marked deep 

 S. of Norway, and continues N. 

 near the Norwegian coast. The 

 British archipelago consists, there- 

 fore, of continental islands with 

 shores which shelve gradually 

 below the sea. 



GEOLOGY. The dominant physi- 

 cal features of Europe mark its 

 geological development. N.W. 

 Ireland, N. Scotland, Scandinavia, 

 and Finland are the oldest parts 

 of Europe ; they consist of 

 Archaean igneous rocks, which are 

 the residue of an ancient continent 

 once extending away to the N. and 

 W. Within and adjacent to these 

 areas arose a series of folded 

 mountains, consisting of Silurian 

 rocks with intrusions of granite, 

 still to be seen in the heights of 

 Wales, N.W. Ireland, Scotland, 

 Scandinavia, and Esthonia. Among 

 these peaks the old Red Sandstone 

 of the Devonian horizon was laid 

 down in the valleys. Carboniferous 

 rocks, magnesian limestone, etc., 

 were then deposited under a Car- 

 boniferous sea, or in the marshes 

 along its edge. 



At the next stage a new set of 

 mountain folds arose ; their relics 

 are the hills of S.W. Ireland, S. 

 Wales, Cornwall, and Brittany, the 

 Ardennes, the Black Forest, the 

 Vosges, the plateau of Bohemia, 

 the Auvergne plateau, and the 

 Meseta or major portion of the 

 Iberian plateau. These folds be- 

 long to the Armorican period. The 

 next great incident was the inva- 

 sion of the Cretaceous Ocean, 

 which washed the shores of the 

 ancient continent and of the islands 

 which were the exposed tops of 

 Armorican Mts. No land had yet 

 appeared to the S. 



In tertiary times, first the 

 Pyrenees and later the Sierra 

 Nevada, N- African Atlas, the 

 Apennines, Alps, Carpathians, 

 Balkans, Crimean and Caucasus 



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Mts. emerge as crumplings of the 

 earth's crust. Their sinuous curves 

 are due to the resistance of the 

 stable relics of the Armorican Mts. 

 During this epoch most of the old 

 continent sank beneath the ocean, 

 and as the new mountains rose 

 they were denuded, and the pro- 

 ducts of erosion filled the seas 

 between them and the more an- 

 cient land. The new mountains 

 vary in the amount of material 

 removed as they gradually uprose ; 

 in the Apennines and Carpathians 

 the older underlying igneous rocks 

 are not laid bare as they are in the 

 Balkans and the Alps. 



While these great changes were 

 taking place the arrangement of 

 land and water upon the earth was 

 greatly modified beyond European 

 limits. The N. Atlantic Ocean was 

 formed, the ancient ocean be- 

 tween the beginnings of Europe 

 and an older continent to the S., 

 now represented by Africa and 

 India, dwindled to form the 

 Mediterranean ; the relative level 

 of sea to land was gradually 

 altered, and the shallow seas then 

 existing have been gradually filled 

 in with alluvial deposits since ter- 

 tiary times. These shallow seas 

 were at least once disturbed by a 

 great ice sheet which extended from 

 the N. as far S. as the Thames, 

 Bohemia, and the Carpathians. 

 Erosion and Glaciation 



In its subsequent retreat the ice 

 left behind it quantities of glacial 

 debris, so that the whole of the great 

 European plain from Ostend to 

 Archangel is the product of erosion 

 from the southern mountains and 

 glaciation from the remains of the 

 ancient northern continent. The 

 plains of the Po, Hungary, the 

 lower Danube, and N.W. of the 

 Caspian are, however, solely ero- 

 sion deposits. 



CLIMATE. Owing to its penin- 

 sular character the climate of 

 Europe is modified by the oceanic 

 conditions which affect it on the 

 W. The prevalent surface air 

 currents are the W. winds, which 

 regularly traverse definite cyclone 

 tracks from the Atlantic Ocean, 

 and carry moisture far into 

 Europe. The prevalent surface 

 oceanic movements are the drifts 

 of wind-driven warm water, which 



rvent the coasts of W. Europe 

 of the North Cape from being 

 ice-bound in winter. 



In relation to its latitude, winter 

 conditions are abnormal. In Jan. 

 the temperatures of Scotland are 

 35 F. above the average for the 

 latitude, so that Cape Wrath, 

 which has a temperature of 40 F., 

 lies in a latitude where the average 

 temperature is 5 F., i.e. 27 de- 

 grees of frost. Only in the extreme 



EUROPE 



E. of Europe, on the Kirghiz { 

 steppe, is the January temperature 

 colder than the normal for the 

 latitude. From Brittany through 

 Stettin to Petrograd the coast 

 strip is 15 F. above the normal. 

 The boundary line, 32 F. isotherm, 

 which limits the area frost bound 

 in winter, starts at the North 

 Cape, goes S. to Hamburg and the 

 Alps, and crosses the Balkans and 

 the Crimea to Baku. E. and N. of 

 this line the winter frosts last from 

 1 to 7 months, the period length- 

 ening towards the N.E. of Europe. 

 These facts show the influence of 

 oceanic conditions. 



In summer, temperatures are 

 normal ; the Arctic circle has a 

 temperature of 50 F., lat. 55 N., 

 70 F., while the coast lands of the 

 Mediterranean have three hot 

 months, when the temperature 

 exceeds 68 F. 



The rainfall exceeds 60 ins. 

 annually on the highest areas and 

 on parts of the W. coast. The 

 Pyrenees, Alps, Balkans, and 

 Caucasus include districts where 

 the rains exceed 40 ins., but most 

 of Europe has an annual precipi- 

 tation of between 20 and 40 ins. 

 Spain, E. and N. Russia receive 

 less than 20 ins. In the Mediter- 

 ranean area most rain falls during 

 the cool season ; the summers are 

 hot and dry. On the Atlantic 

 coast rains are usually heaviest 

 during late autumn. In the E. most 

 rain falls during hot weather. 



The Mediterranean peninsulas 

 are lands of clear skies with a maxi- 

 mum duration of sunshine in excess 

 of 2,500 hours annually. Scandi- 

 navia is a cloudy area with less than 

 half as much sunshine. In Decem- 

 ber Scandinavia does not average 1 

 hour of sunshine a day, while Spain 

 averages at least 3 hours daily. 



VEGETATIOK. From N. to S. 

 the natural growth occurs in belts 

 merging each into the next. Along 

 the Arctic shore the tundra has 

 stunted willows and a few annual 

 plants ; to the S. lies the forest, 

 at first coniferous, then deciduous ; 

 farther S. the trees give place to the 

 steppe or natural grass land ; in the 

 extreme S. there is little grass, only 

 evergreen shrubs, cypresses, and 

 chestnut trees. 



Growth of Economic Plants 



The vegetation zones are best 

 marked in the E. In the W., Ger- 

 many and England, for example, 

 have had their natural forest cover 

 removed by man ; there are no 

 wide plains in France to be grass 

 land like the Hungarian Alf old (q. v. ). 

 The mountains are forested on the 

 lower slopes, and, if high enough, 

 snow-capped ; the plateaus tend to 

 be forested, or bare if there is in- 

 sufficient soil. 



