200 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



CHAPTER II. 



HIGH LANDS OF THE EARTH. 



N taking a rapid survey of the extraordinary linea- 

 ments that characterise the external appearance of 

 the globe, and constitute its superficies, it is natural 

 to commence with the surface diversities of the land 

 . regions, and with those that immediately arrest the 

 eye, and powerfully interest the mind. These are 

 the elevations. They appear under the various 

 forms of gentle slopes, bold hills, and majestic 

 ' eminences which tower above the clouds, and seem to 

 claim a sovereign authority over the territory in which they are 

 situate. The term mountain is used with a very equivocal 

 meaning, being applied alike to single eminences and to an entire 

 group. It denominates, also, in one country, elevations which in 

 another district abounding with those of a superior class would be regarded as mere 

 hillocks. It has been proposed to confine the term to eminences ranging a thousand feet 

 and upwards above the general surface land, and to regard those which are below that 

 standard as simple hills or slopes. The slighter acclivities, whether crowned with grove 

 and forest, whether planted with vegetable productions by the cultivating hand of man, 

 or left to the natural grasses, form the most pleasing features of the soil ; while the loftier 

 projections of the superficies, stamped with an air of dignity, and indicating an upheaving 

 power of irresistible might in their construction, present to the eye a thousand imposing 

 combinations. Fringed with the dark green pine, and spotted with the lighter mosses 

 with naked heads, as if in reverence of an invisible Superior the mountains captivate 

 while impressing the imagination. They are specimens of the fine arts of Nature, the 

 gems of continents, wonderful examples of the diverse forms by which the ideas of 

 Beauty, Majesty, and Power may be expressed. 



The high lands occur in isolation, or in groups, ridges, and chains. Groups of moun- 

 tains have sometimes the appearance of elevations radiating from a central point where 

 the height is the greatest, forming a kind of circular cluster ; but clusters of very irregular 

 form occur without any principal eminence. The most general arrangement of mountains is 

 in chains and ridges a ridge being simply an inferior chain. To this class those elevations 

 belong which are so distributed as to form a kind of zone or band, the breadth bearing little 

 proportion to the length ; and whatever direction the zone may take, and whatever shape 

 it may assume that of a straight line, an angle, or a curve it is said to constitute a 

 chain. The term is not meant to signify an unbroken series of projections, answering 

 to the appearance of a street in which the buildings, though diversified, are attached, 

 but a series of parts, in many cases distinct, yet lying in the same general direction. 

 Many chains consist of one grand central range, accompanied by two subordinate ranges 

 of inferior elevation, one on each side, at a diverging distance from the main body, 

 and sometimes closing up with it. Smaller chains frequently branch off from the main 

 ridge in an angular direction, as the Apennines from the Alps, and minor branches shoot 

 out from these, which are called spurs when their course is short. The highest points 

 of a great chain are usually about the middle, as Chimborago in the Andes, and Mont 

 Blanc in the Alps ; and the most elevated parts of a branch from the main ridge are at 



