240 THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA. 



the Apennines the mountain ranges on the eastern side 

 of the Adriatic the great group of Greece the vast 

 chains of Caucasus, Taurus, and of Libanus, all closely per- 

 taining to its physical geography. We might name Par- 

 nassus, Pindus, Olympus, Pelion and Ossa, Hymettus, QEta, 

 Ida, Athos, Etna, and a hundred other mountains familiar to 

 classical memory, which either rise from the waters of the 

 Mediterranean, or are more distantly seen in coasting its 

 shores. But, without pausing upon these, or illustrating them 

 by the endless quotations which will crowd on the recol- 

 lection of the scholar, we may remark that no sea exhibits so 

 wonderful a continuity of lofty and precipitous coast as the 

 Mediterranean. With the exception of the northern shore 

 of Africa from near Tunis to the borders of Syria, and a few 

 more limited portions of its outline in other parts, we find 

 generally around this vast circuit a bold mountain-frontage 

 to the waters; magnificently exemplified in the Corniche 

 and whole line from the Rhone to the Arno ; in the African 

 coast from Algiers to Bona ; in the shores of Greece, Asia 

 Minor, and Syria ; and again in the grand range of moun- 

 tains traversing the ancient monarchy of Mithridates, and 

 forming for many hundred miles the precipitous southern 

 boundary of the Black Sea. Many portions of these Medi- 

 terranean coasts make their first swell from the sea to the 

 height of 3,000 or 4,000 feet, with mountains behind them 

 more than doubling this elevation. 



The islands of the Mediterranean, with few exceptions, 

 offer the same bold elevation to the eye. In none of its phy- 

 sical features, indeed, is this Sea more remarkable than in 

 the isles, great and small, which rise so numerously out of 

 its profound depths. They almost all attest in their height, 

 abruptness, and other features those great subterranean 

 movements in past ages, to which we have alluded, as having 

 variously altered the relations of land and sea throughout 



