Physical Geography. 129 



" The natural limits of the Alps, it is rather more difficult to estab- 

 lish. The Appenines are so closely connected with the (so called) 

 Maritime Alps, that they are justly considered as an arm of that chain. 

 In like manner, towards the east, the Alps extend to the mountains of 

 Croatia and Dalmatia, and even to those of Bosnia, the eastern por- 

 tion of which formerly bore the name of Hemus. But as in phys- 

 ical geography we are allowed to consider, when v/e form subdivis- 

 ions, not one alone, but a great number of different relations, each of 

 those spurs ought to be separated from the principal branch, on ac- 

 count of the difference of climate and vegetation which characterises 

 them ; and even, independently of these, the change of direction 

 which is evident at the points of junction of these branches with the 

 Alps, the abasement of the ridges, and their geognostic character, 

 would be sufficient to require or to admit of this separation. The 

 Alps and the Pyrenees can be considered as a single chain of moun- 

 tains, only by those who embrace the hypotheses of the connection 

 of all possible chains. The Rhone is a natural limit of the Alps to- 

 ward the west. With respect to the Jura, the question is more doubt- 

 ful ; nevertheless as it is separated from the Alps and united to other 

 mountains, by geognostic as well as by other relations, and as the re- 

 gion between the Alps and the Jura is low, I am inclined to consider 

 it as not belonging to the Alps. Still less can we admit as appertain- 

 ing to them, the inferior mountains of the interior of Germany and 

 France. Thus, the natural limits of the Alps are, — on the east, the 

 plains of Hungary ; on the south, the Adriatic Sea, the Lombardo- 

 Venetian plains, (the Valley of the Po,) and the Mediterranean Sea ; 

 on the west, the Rhone ; and on the north, Lake Leman, the Lake 

 of Neuchatel, the Aar, the Rhine from its junction with the Aar to 

 the. Lake of Constance, and lastly the Danube. 



"The Pyrenees are terminated on the east by the Mediterranean, 

 on the west by the Atlantic ; on the north by the low region, (a great 

 portion of which is almost a perfect plane,) watered by the Adour, 

 the Garonne, the Aude, &c. They have some connection, towards 

 the south west, widi the chain which extends into the Spanish penin- 

 sula along the southern coast, and with some other mountains of that 

 peninsula. But the reasons which induce us to separate the Appe- 

 nines from the Alps, are equally in favor of a separation of these 

 chains from that of the Pyrenees." 



The three chains being thus defined, the author examines and 

 compares them under all imaginable points of view, namely, their 



Vol. XXL— No. L 17 



