54 Guyot on Carl Bitter. 



Southern half of the continent, and descending on three sides 

 by terraces destitute of low-lands, to the shores of the ocean. 

 The Northern half, comparatively low and uniform, is a burn- 

 ing desert, separated from the main plateau by the fertile ter- 

 races and the plains of Soudan, and from the Mediterranean 

 Sea by the long and Isolated mountainous plateau of the Atlas, 

 and the small plateau of Barca. Simplicity and uniformity 

 of structure is thus the share of Africa. Asia, on the con- 

 trary, has two central plateaux, one in the East, the other in 

 the West, both with lofty mountain chains, broad terraces, 

 extensive low-lands, and projecting peninsulas ; it is a double 

 continent ; the land of huge forms, of extremes, and of the 

 most striking contrasts. In Europe another type still prevails. 

 The central table-land on which the Alpine system rests, 

 loses its primary importance in the presence of the gigantic 

 mass of the Alps and the mountain form, more broken, more 

 articulated, as it were, becomes typical of the continent. 



The contrast between the various continents is not less 

 remarkable, when we compare the horizontal forms of contour 

 which are themselves but the consequences of the variety of 

 plastic forms just mentioned. Africa is a compact mass, shut up 

 in itself, almost inaccessible to the influences coming from the 

 ocean, deprived of these deep indentations, and projecting pen- 

 insulas, which abound in Asia and Europe. Even the corners of 

 the triangle which seems to be the fundamental shape of every 

 continent, are all rounded off, and the shape of Africa ap- 

 proaches that of an ellipse. The line of contact of land and 

 water is reduced, as it were, to a minimum ; and that uni- 

 formity of outlines betrays the simplicity of its internal con- 

 figuration. 



Asia, on the contrary, is deeply indented, and its gulfs and 

 peninsulas present themselves on a scale commensurate with 

 the magnitude of that king among the continents. Innumer- 

 able continental islands, and among them the largest to be 

 found amid the oceans, surround it, and add to it an amount 

 of land almost equivalent to another small continent, while 

 Africa can only boast of Madagascar. 



Europe again, that peninsular continent of the Old World, 

 is still more indented. Here the mixture of land and water is 

 carried to an extreme. The line of shores of that smallest of 

 these continents, surpass by one-half that of the large mass 

 of Africa. One-third of its whole surface is cut off in peninsu- 

 las. If Africa is a vast trunk without members, Europe is the 



