Europe : — a popular Physical Sketch, 199 



the east European plain, and those next to them in the 

 Alps. 



The Scandinavian and the Greek Peninsula, and the Eu- 

 ropean Islands possess no river sufficiently large to come 

 under the three first classes. 



It is already mentioned, that the north of Europe possesses 

 more lakes than the south. The largest collection of lakes 

 forms a broad belt south-east of the Scandinavian mountains 

 in the north of Russia, Finland, and south Sweden ; another 

 parallel belt of smaller lakes appears on the south side of 

 the Baltic. A third considerable collection of lakes, is that 

 at the foot of the Alps. 



The conspectus of the temperature of Europe is rendered 

 easy by drawing lines, (isothermic lines,) through all such 

 places which have an equal annual mean temperature. The 

 considerable southern curvature of those lines in the east 

 of Europe, proves that the heat decreases towards the east. 

 Thus the isothermic line for 4° Reaumur falls a little 

 south of Iceland, in the 63° north latitude, a little south 

 of Drontheim in nearly the same latitude, but at the Baltic it 

 sinks down to the 60° north latitude, and in Russia to 55°. 

 These curvatures are larger in the north, than in the south 

 of Europe. 



It has already been observed, that the quantity of rain par- 

 ticularly depends upon the mountains, and the vicinity of the 

 sea, and that the south and the south-west side of the south 

 European mountains are the most rainy localities. 



Perpetual snow appears in Iceland, Scandinavia, Balkan, 

 the Alps, Pyrenees, and Serra Nevada. The summits of the 

 Karpathians, Apennines, of Etna, and the Corsican moun- 

 tains touch the snow limit. At the North Cape this line is 

 2,346 feet above the level of the sea, on Etna 11,182 feet. 

 It sinks everywhere somewhat towards the sea. Avalanches 

 {Glaciers, ' Gletschen',) appear in Iceland, Scandinavia, and 

 the Alps, and faint traces in the Pyrenees and Karpathians. 



