516 Europe : — a popular Physical Sketch. 



pying 27 degrees from N. to S., it extends about 1600 miles 

 from E. to W., 800 between the gulphs of Finland and Ural, 

 1200 from Grodno to Ural, and 500 from the Carpathians to 

 Astrakan on the Caspian sea. The sea, viz. the Arctic ocean 

 and the White sea, the Baltic, with the gulph of Finland, 

 the Black sea and the gulph of Asov, touch a small part only 

 of this immense plain, the most part of which is continent, 

 and far distant from the ocean. 



The entire plain is indeed not quite level, for the NW. 

 part presents some uneven tracts, which however either 

 form undulated plains, or plateau, or high banks of rivers, 

 scarcely exceeding 853 to 1066 feet, and consequently do 

 not deserve the name of mountains. Such, for instance, is 

 the case with the tracts of country called the Waldai and 

 the Wolchonsky mountains, the sources of the rivers Volga 

 and Dnipr (E. and S.), Duna and Volkoo (NW. and N.). 

 The country between Dnipr on the one, Duna and Niemen on 

 the other side, consists of marshes, and there is a canal com- 

 munication between these three rivers, and between Dnipr 

 and the Vistula, and those rivers, although taking different 

 directions, occasionally communicate after heavy rains. The 

 NW. parts appear to be the highest, and from those the 

 plain slopes partly towards the White, partly towards the 

 Caspian sea, the surrounding countries of which (in NW. 

 and E.) form a basin ; thus Saratov and Orenburg, situated 

 in opposite directions some 280 miles distant from the Cas- 

 pian sea, are only 320 feet, Burzuk, on the lake Aral, 130 

 feet, above the level of the Caspian. Gaisekaln, in Livonia, a 

 short distance from the Baltic, has an elevation of nearly 

 1024 feet above the level of the ocean. 



Some of the largest rivers in Europe, most of which have 

 their sources here, water the plain ; thus the gigantic Volga, 

 whose mouth is in the Caspian sea, Don, Dnipr, Dnister, and 

 the Danube terminating in the Black sea, Niemen and Duna 

 in the Baltic, Dvina and Petschora in the Arctic ocean. 



