MOUNTAINS OF NORTH AMERICA. 597 



coast are situated within a few degrees of the equinoctial line, and 

 wear a crown of snow which is indissoluble. One of these, KLli- 

 mandjaro, has an altitude of 22,814 feet, while Kenia cannot be less 

 than 20,000 feet. Others are probably equal, or little inferior, to 

 these in height. 



In South Africa are three ranges of mountains, or rather terraces, 

 the northernmost of which is called the Nieuweld, and runs in a 

 general course of east and west. Towards its eastern extremity it 

 bears the name of the Sneeaberg, or Snowy Mountain, and its 

 summits are frequently 1000 feet high. The Compassberg group 

 is 7000 feet in elevation. Immediately to the south of Cape Town 

 rises the curious flat-topped Table Mountain, 3582 feet in height. 

 The Peak of Teneriffe, in the Canary Isles, off the north-west coast, 

 is volcanic ; it rises 12,236 feet above the sea. 



Asia possesses, as we have seen, the loftiest mountain-peaks, but it 

 is on the American continent we meet with the grandest mountain- 

 systems. We remark, in the first place, that they are all directed 

 from north to south ; in the second, that they are grouped along the 

 western and eastern coasts in two unequal systems, converging 

 towards each other as they run southward. In North America these 

 two systems are the Rocky Mountains on the west; and the Apala- 

 chian, or Alleghany, on the east. The former consists of a mountain- 

 region, diversified with valleys, terraces, and plateaus, varying in 

 breadth from 40 to 100 miles, and raising several summits to a very 

 conspicuous elevation, as in Mount Brown, 15,900 feet, and the 

 volcanic peak of Mount Elias, in California, 17,500 feet. 



The Apalachian range extends from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to 

 the parallel of 34, a course of 1500 miles. It is intersected by 

 Lake Champlain and the valley of the Hudson. Its average height 

 does not exceed 3000 feet ; but it culminates in Mount Washington 

 to an altitude of 6234 feet. 



In South America the chain of the Rocky Mountains is prolonged 

 in the magnificent system of the Cordilleras de los Andes, or the 



