543 



Panama, but on the east of the Cordillera of 

 the Andes, scarcely attain, on 600,000 square 

 leagues, the height of the Scandinavian Alps, 

 the Carpathes, Monts-Dores (in Auvergne), and 

 the Jura. One system only, that of the Andes, 

 unites in America on a long and narrow zone of 

 3000 leagues, all the summits which are more 

 than 1400 toises high. In Europe, on the con- 

 trary, even considering, with too systematic 

 views, the Alps and Pyrenees as one sole line of 

 elevation, we still find summits far from this 

 line or principal ridge, in the Sierra Nevada of 

 Grenada, Sicily, Greece, the Appenines, perhaps 

 also in Portugal, from 1500 to 1800 toises 

 high*. The contrast between America and 

 Europe, with respect to the distribution of the 

 culminant points which attain 1300 to 1500 

 toises, is the more striking as the low eastern 

 mountains of South America, of which the 



* Culminant points ; Mulhacan of Grenada, 1826 toises ; 

 Etna, according to Captain William Henry Smith, 1700 t. 

 Monte Corno of the Appenines, 1489 t. If Mont Tomoros 

 in Greece and the Serra Gaviarra of Portugal, enter, as is 

 asserted, within the limit of perpetual snows (Pouquevilte, 

 Tom. ii, p. 242, and Balbis, Essai statisiique Stir le Portugal, 

 Tom. i, p. 68, 98), those summits, according to their posi- 

 tion in latitude, should attain 1400 to 1600 toises. Yet on 

 the loftiest mountains of Greece, the Tomoros, the Olympus 

 of Thessalia, the Polyanos of Dolopes, and Mount Parnassus, 

 M. Pouqueville saw, in the month of August, snow pre- 

 served only in stripes, or in cavities sheltered from the rays 

 of the sun. 



