XVIII.] LAND AND WATER. 



305 



broader and higher mass of the Alps, which splits to inclose 

 the plain of Hungary ; and is then continued, to the east- 

 ward, by the Balkans, the mountains of Asia Minor, and 

 those of Armenia and the Caucasus. The highlands of 

 Persia and of Beloochistan connect these last with the 

 Hindu Kush ; beyond which the elevated land spreads out 

 into an immense half-moon-shaped mass, the southern and 

 eastern escarpment of which is formed by the Himalayas 

 and the ranges continued from them into China; while the 

 northern and western escarpment is constituted by the Thian- 

 Shian and Altai mountains. The interval between these is 

 occupied by lower, but still much elevated, table lands; 

 and the area of these eastern Asiatic highlands is prob- 

 ably not less than five-and-twenty times as great as that of 

 Britain. 



To the north of this great mountain system, there is an 

 enormous plain, which stretches through northern Eurasia 

 to the Arctic Ocean. It commences in Europe, in what 

 are called the Netherlands, or the Low Countries ; or rather, 

 its beginning may be traced in the flat districts of our 

 eastern counties, for Britain, as already explained, is but 

 .an extension of north-western Europe. Thence it is con- 

 tinued by the great North-German plain, which stretches 

 across Europe to Russia, where its continuity is broken 

 by the low range of the Ural mountains ; but only to be 

 renewed, on their eastern side, by the vast plains of 

 Siberia. To the south of the east-and-west mountain-system 

 of Eurasia, there is no similar plain ; and the mountains come 

 down much nearer to the sea on the south, than on the 

 north, side. In fact, the great line of elevation does not 

 traverse the middle of the continent, so as to divide it into 

 two equal halves, one lying on the north and the other on 

 the south ; but it runs very much nearer to the southern 



X 



