MOUNTAINS. 



79 



against oppression and privileged orders. Disliking 

 the commercial profession, he devoted himself to- the 

 study of law at the university of Orange, and, after 

 three years, became an advocate. At the age of 

 twenty-five years, he purchased the office of a judge- 

 royal, which he exercised for six years with much 

 reputation. His open declaration against the abuses 

 of the stamp and land tax, as they then existed in 

 France, and against the mal-administration of the 

 finances, gave one of the first impulses, in 1787, to 

 the general opposition to these oppressive measures ; 

 and when, in the following year, the severe and im- 

 prudent proceedings of the government occasioned 

 disturbances in Grenoble, the public voice selected 

 him as umpire. In the first deliberations of the 

 national assembly (of which he was a member), he 

 was conspicuous. He was one of the principal actors 

 in the scene of the tennis-court, July 20. Until the 

 events of the 5th and 6th of October, he took an 

 active part in all the proceedings of the constituent 

 assembly, and the resolution and honesty with which 

 he conducted in the presidency of this body, under 

 circumstances of great difficulty, protecting the inter- 

 ests of the nation, and repelling the unjust attacks 

 on the royal family, secured him the esteem of the 

 better part of the community. But when anarchy at 

 length prevailed, and no hope remained of restrain- 

 ing the fierceness of unbridled passions, he retired 

 from public life to the Datiphine, and thence, in 

 November, 1789, demanded his dismission. At the 

 same time, he published an exposition of his conduct 

 Expose de su Conduite et des Motifs de son retour 

 en DauphinS. At Geneva, to which he afterwards 

 retired to escape the persecutions of the Jacobins, he 

 published the Appel au Tribunal de r Opinion pub- 

 lique a work written with freedom and boldness, in 

 which he described the events of October 5 and 6, 

 and set forth the causes to which he attributed them. 

 In 1793, he went from Switzerland to London, where 

 government offered him the place of chief-justice in 

 Canada, with a considerable salary, which, however, 

 he refused, as he had not relinquished the hope of 

 returning to his country ; and Geneva, where he had 

 till then resided, having been involved in the revolu- 

 tionary disturbances, he retired to Germany, with his 

 family, in 1795, where the duke of Weimar received 

 him kindly, and gave him the castle of Belvedere 

 (near Weimar), that he might establish there an 

 institution for the education of young men from 

 the higher ranks (chiefly young Englishmen). 

 Mounier here wrote his work De I Influence at- 

 tribuee aux Philosophes, aux Francs-Masons et aux 

 Illuminees sur la Revolution de France, which ap- 

 peared in Tubingen, in 1801 (Paris, 1821). After 

 the 18th Brumaire, he returned to France, was nomi- 

 nated, in 1802, prefect of the department I lie and 

 Vilaine, and, in 1804, member of the conservative 

 senate, and in the following year, was made a mem- 

 ber of the council of state. He died January 26, 

 1806. His son, Edward Claude Philip, baron (born 

 1784), was auditor of the council of state under Na- 

 poleon; in 1809, became secretary of the cabinet, 

 and, in 1810, was made maitre des requetes. In 

 1815, he entered into the chamber of deputies, and, 

 in 1817, was made counsellor of state, and president 

 of the commission appointed to settle the liquidations 

 with foreign powers. In 1819, he was made peer. 



MOUNTAINS; the largest elevations of the 

 surface of the earth. Hills are distinguished from 

 mountains by inferior height. Several mountains 

 together, which cover a plain, are called a group of 

 mountains ; mountains that form a series of several 

 miles in length, a chain or ridge of mountains. Single 

 mountains, rising out of a plain country, are seldom 

 met with. The cavities between the mountains are 



termed valleys. The sea-coasts are generally the 

 lowest part of a country, which gradually rises, so 

 that the centre of a continent is the highest, and is 

 covered with considerable mountains. The chief 

 mountains are connected in extensive chains all 

 over the surface of the globe. The Ural mountains, 

 which separate Asia from Europe, and send forth a 

 branch towards Nova Zembla, are connected witli 

 the Severnoi or Sevous ridge, that forms the boun- 

 dary between Norway and Sweden, and a part of 

 Russia. Another chain stretches from the northern 

 part of India to Thibet and Cashmere, where it 

 forms the highest region, not only of Central Asia, 

 but of the known world, running westward through 

 Persia, and eastward through China. From the 

 highest elevation of Northern Asia, the Bogdo 

 mountains, which separate the seats of the Cal- 

 mucks from those of the Mongols, a chain of moun- 

 tains under the name of Mossart runs southward to 

 Thibet : another, under the name of Aluk, extends 

 towards the west through the deserts of Independent 

 Tartary and Bucharia, and joins the Ural moun- 

 tains : a third, under the name of Zangai, in Mon- 

 golia, stretches eastward, then, turning, forms Corea 

 and the cliffs and islands toward Japan : a fourth 

 chain consists of the Alta mountains, which border 

 on Siberia, from the Irtish to the Amour. The 

 branches of these great Asiatic chains are innumer- 

 able. Between the Caspian and Black seas, the 

 Caucasus (q. v.) is situated. It sends off branches 

 through Asia Minor as far as Arabia, which form 

 the ridges of Taurus, Lebanon, and Sinai, while 

 others pass round the Black sea to Europe. From 

 the Black sea, between Moldavia, Walachia, and 

 Transylvania, the Carpathians extend through Poland 

 and Hungary, and, in Silesia, join the mountainous 

 regions of Germany. The Sudetes run between 

 Bohemia and Silesia, sending forth branches to the 

 north and west, through Lusatia to the Saxon Erage- 

 birge, and Voigtland. The Fichtelgebirge and the 

 Thuringerwald, or Forest of Thuringia, together 

 with the Eichsfeld and the northern Hartzgebirge, 

 extend through the centre of Germany. The most 

 elevated countries of Europe are Switzerland and 

 Savoy, whose Alps are connected with the neigh- 

 bouring chains of Germany, Italy, and France. A 

 branch, united with them, the Apennines, running 

 through all Italy as far as Reggio, is probably con- 

 nected, by a submarine chain, with the mountains of 

 Africa. The Rhaetian Alps stretch between the 

 Grisons and Milan ; the Tridentine between the 

 Tyrol and the territories of Venice; the Noricau 

 between the Tyrol and Salzburg ; and those of 

 Carinthia between Carinthia, Carniola, Friuli, and 

 Tstria. On the west, some branches of the Alps 

 extend into France. The Pyrenees form the frontier 

 wall and the principal elevation of the Spanish 

 peninsula. In Africa, the chain called Atlas is the 

 most famous. There is a distinction made between 

 the Great and Little Atlas. The former, which is, 

 perhaps, connected witli the mountain chains of 

 Arabia, runs westwardly to Barbary, separating it 

 from Biledulgerid; the latter reaches from Tunis to 

 Gibraltar. In addition to these, some less celebrated 

 chains extend along the Nile, through Upper Egypt, 

 Nubia, and Abyssinia, to unknown regions in the 

 interior of Africa, where they are connected with 

 the Mountains of the Moon. Thence some ridges 

 stretch to the south of Africa, and join, perhnps, the 

 Snow mountains, which take their course from the 

 cape of Good Hope towards the interior. Next to 

 Asia, America contains the highest mountains. 

 With the Cordilleras (q. v.), along the western coast 

 of Chile and Peru, other chains of mountains aro 

 connected, running through the rest of South 



