32 PHYSIOGRAPHIC GEOLOGY. 



On the side of the Xorth Atlantic there are the mountains of Scan- 

 dinavia and the British Isles, the former having a mean height of 4000 feet 

 and a maximum, in Galdhopig, of 8400 feet ; and farther south, the Alps 

 and other mountains of eastern Europe, the higher portions covering but 

 small areas. On the side of the larger Pacific there are loftier mountains 

 in long ranges — the Shan-a-lin range of Manchuria, having j)eaks of 10,000 

 to 12,000 feet, and the high Khingan range of 15,000 feet, facing China. Off 

 the coast there is still another series of ranges, now partly submerged, — 

 viz. those of Japan and other linear groups of islands ; these stand in front 

 of the interior chain, very much as the Cascade range and Sierra Nevada of 

 the Pacific border of America are in advance of the summit ridges of the 

 Rocky Mountains, and both are alike in being partly volcanic, with cones 

 of great altitude. 



Thus viewing Eurasia across its whole breadth from west to east, there is 

 an interior basin of immense extent, which includes some of the lowest land 

 of the globe. The plains of eastern Europe, north of the Carpathians, com- 

 prise three fifths of all Europe, and are situated, with reference to the 

 mountain-border of Europe, like the Mississippi basin with reference to the 

 Appalachians. Farther east there is the low laud of the Caspian-Aral basin 

 of western Asia, a million of square miles in area, over a fourth of it lying 

 below the sea level. 



Facing the large and open Indian Ocean, and looking southward, stand 

 thB Himalayas, — the loftiest of mountains, in which peaks of 20,000 feet 

 and over are very numerous, and few passes are under 16,000 feet, — called 

 the Himalayas as far as Kashmir, and from there, where a new sweep in the 

 curve begins, the Hindu-Kush, — the whole over 2000 miles in length : 

 not so long, it is true, as the Andes, but continued as far as the ocean in 

 front continues. The Kuen-Lun Mountains, to the north of the Himalayas, 

 make another crest to the great chain. Farther north lies the great interior 

 arid plateau, the Desert of Gobi ; and then rise other mountain chains, the 

 Thian-Shan to the northwest having peaks of 14,000 to 15,000 feet, the 

 Yablonoi to the northeast, and farther north, the Altai facing Siberia. 

 Beyond these stretches Siberia, an alluvial area, 1000 miles wide. 



18. 



The diagram (Fig. 18) represents the general features of a section from 

 north to south through the Himalayas. At a, there is the elevated land 

 of India ; between a and 6, the low river-plain at the base of the Himalayas ; 

 at 6, the Himalayas ; 6 to c. Plains of Tibet ; c, the Kuen-Lun ridge ; c to d, 

 Plains of Mongolia and Desert of Gobi ; at d, the Altai ; d to n, the Siberian 

 plains. 



