THE SURFACE OF THE EARTH. 



chains, the combination of which forms the main ridge of the 

 great continent, commence with Mount Atlas and the Pyrennees 

 at the extreme west, and are continued by the Alps and the 

 Himalaya to the Altaic mountains at the extreme east. 



4o. Outlines of Europe ; their adaptation to Commerce. 

 The most striking geographical feature by which Europe is 

 distinguished 'from the other parts of the great continent, consists 

 in the numerous and extensive inlets of water by which it is 

 penetrated and intersected in all directions. No equal extent of 

 land in any part of the globe presents a like phenomenon, and to 

 this, as much as to its temperate climate, must undoubtedly be 

 ascribed the immense social, commercial, and political predo- 

 minance which it has acquired and maintained. By this reticu- 

 lation of inland seas, gulfs, bays, and straits, navigation and 

 commerce arrive within short distances of all its internal centres, 

 and its vast extent of coasts is studded with cities and towns, 

 and sheltered ports and harbours, which become so many em- 

 poriums of commerce, and centres and sources of wealth and 

 civilisation. 



46. White Sea At its extreme north, Europe is penetrated 

 by an enclosed sheet of water of great magnitude, called the White 

 Sea. On the west, the Baltic enters it, ramifying in different 

 directions, throwing out north and west the gulfs of Bothnia and 

 Finland, and sprinkled with islands and vast peninsulas, which 

 form kingdoms of great importance, such as Denmark. 



47. Norway and Sweden are formed into a great peninsula, 

 separated from the continent by a broad neck of land, included 

 between the North Sea on the west, and the head of the Gulf of 

 Bothnia on the east. 



48. British Isles. Nearly opposite the mouth of the Baltic, 

 and the north-western point of France, are placed the British 

 Isles, separated from the coast of Holland and Belgium by the 

 German Ocean, and from that of France by the English Channel 

 and the Strait of Dover. These islands, combined with the sub- 

 ordinate ones with which they are surrounded and skirted, such 

 as the Shetlands, the Orkneys, the Western Isles, the Isles of 

 Man and Anglesea, the Scilly, and the Channel Islands, may be 

 considered as forming an archipelago, the principal divisions of 

 which are richly intersected by channels, bays, and gulfs, which 

 have so favoured navigation, as to enable the British nation to 

 attain and maintain that commercial and naval pre-eminence, 

 for which she has so long been celebrated. 



49. France, the most important and powerful of the European 

 states, occupies the centre of Western Europe. Her territory is se- 

 parated on the east from those of the German states by the Rhine, 



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