MOUNTAIN RANGE HARBORS 1 8 



o 



of the Spanish pcninsuhi, a number of bays h'e between the 

 projecting mountain spurs ; so, too, the deep embay men ts 

 of Greece appear to be the flooded valleys which lie between 

 the numerous mountain chains of that country, while a large 

 part of the islands of the Archipelago are made up of peaks 

 belonging to those portions of the same ranges which lie 

 mostly below the level of the sea. 



Occasionally where mountains run parallel with the sea- 

 shore near which they lie, some of the ranges are so placed 

 that their parallel valleys may be low enough to receive the 

 waters of the sea and thus form straits between mountainous 

 islands and the mainland. The elongate islands which border 

 the eastern side of the Adriatic appear to belong to this class 

 of inlets. On the coast of North America the only conspicu- 

 ous instances of this kind occur along the Pacific coast, of 

 which perhaps the most characteristic is that of Victoria, lying 

 immediately north of Puget Sound. A closely related group 

 of harbors formed by the projection of peninsulated mountain 

 ranges into the sea is well illustrated by the promontory of 

 Lower California. Owing to the large scale of these inlets 

 formed by the projection of mountain ranges into the sea, or 

 islands extending parallel to the shore, made by the summits 

 of ranges which are in good part submerged, the waters which 

 they enclose are generally too extensive to serve the best 

 uses of havens, though they are sometimes valuable as road- 

 steads where ships may at least be sheltered from the heavier 

 waves. Inlets of this description are much more common on 

 the coast of Europe than on the shores of North America, for 

 the reason that the mountain ranches of the former continent 

 are more numerous and more frequently come to the shore- 

 line than in the New World. 



