Europe : — a popular Physical Sketch. 9 



some greater climatic differences. The Scandinavian moun- 

 tains are exposed much more than the Alps to the influ- 

 ence of the sea, wherefore also the west side possesses a coast 

 climate. The sea makes deep inlets into this chain, which of 

 course is not the case in the Alps. The Scandinavian chain 

 is precipitous towards west, and slopes very gently towards 

 east ; the northern and southern declivities of the Alps are 

 more uniform ; — the former chain is flat above, and the passes 

 traverse broad table lands, of which the Alps are void, and 

 their passes consist generally speaking of deep depressions 

 in the rocks, where two valleys from opposite sides meet 

 each other. The Alps, on the other hand, form extensive 

 longitudinal valleys, and their transverse valleys differ less 

 than the Scandinavian, where they are very large on the 

 east side, and proportionally small on the west side. A si- 

 milar difference exists in the rivers ; in Scandinavia all the 

 large rivers are found on the east side ; in the Alps the 

 rivers of the north side exceed those of the southern, yet 

 the difference between either side is not great. On either 

 side of the foot of the Alps appear extensive lakes ; in 

 Scandinavia lakes are found only at the eastern foot ; but 

 large mountain lakes are common, compared to which 

 those in the Alps are small. Limestone prevailing in the 

 Alps, is not found in the Scandinavian mountains. 



The snow line is situated 6400 feet higher on the north 

 side of the Alps than in the northernmost part of Scan- 

 dinavia, and 3626 feet higher on the southern side of the 

 former, than on the most southern part of the latter. Ne- 

 vertheless greater masses of ice and snow are found in 

 the Alps in consequence of their greater height. The 

 woody region is formed by pines in the Alps, by the birch 

 in Scandinavia. 



The two lowest alpine zones, viz. those of the beech 

 and the oak and that of the chestnut, are missing in the 

 Scandinavian mountains. Cultivation does not compara- 



