HIGH LANDS OF THE EARTH. 



201 



the points of junction with the parent stem. The first-class chains have almost uniformly 

 nn abrupt descent on one side, and a gentler declivity on the other. This is the case 

 with the Andes, the Alps, the Pyrenees, the mountains of Scandinavia, and the Ghauts 

 of India. It was held by Berghaus that the western side of chains extending north and 

 south is most abrupt, while it is the southern side that is so in the case of those running 

 east and west. But the exceptions to this are numerous, and no general rule upon the 

 point can be advanced, beyond one which applies to chains near the coast, which have 

 their steepest sides fronting the ocean. Taurus, Atlas, and Lebanon present their most 

 precipitous and craggy faces to the Mediterranean, and the Andes likewise to the Pacific. 

 The great chains in general follow the direction in which the land of the continents 

 where they are situated has its greatest extent. Thus the ranges, which, with only a few 

 breaks, stretch from the south-west coast of Europe to the north-east coast of Asia, 

 traverse the old world in the line of its maximum longitude ; and the Andes of South 

 America, continued by the Rocky Mountains of the North, travel through the new world 

 in the direction of its greatest length. The course of subordinate chains, also, as of the 

 Apennines in Italy, the Dofrefeld in Norway and Sweden, and the Ghauts in Hindustan, 

 corresponds with the general direction of these peninsulas. 



The length of the principal chains has been computed as follows : 



Andes, South America - 

 Rocky Mountains, North America 

 Caucasus, from the Black Sea to the Caspian 

 Himalaya, including the Hindoo-Koosh and 



Persian Elburz to the Caspian 

 Alps, from Mont Blanc to near Vienna 

 Apennines from the Maritime Alps 



Miles. 



4500 



30OO 



700 



2800 

 450 

 800 



Miles. 



Kouenlun, north boundary of Thibet - 1600 



Altai, south boundary of Siberia - - 884 



Ural, boundary of Europe and Asia - 1500 



Atlas, African shore of the Mediterranean - 2000 



Scandinavian chain - - 900 



Alleganies, United States - 900 



Pyrenees, between France and Spain - 200 



The insulated mountains, or those which are apart from any group or chain, are not 



Mount Kgmont in \e\v Zealand. 



