140 MOUN 
Nature, however, in the direction of the principal 
mountain-ranges, ftriflly adheres to a law which feems 
not to us to have been fufficiently noticed, and which it 
is necelfary to explain. The moft continuous, the moil 
extenfive, and the moft elevated, chains of mountains, 
always coincide in direction with that of the large!! di- 
meniions of the continents or illands; thofe next in re- 
fpedl of height, with that of the open or clofed peninfulae 
which form their terminations; and the minor chains are 
fubordinate in their direction to that of the broadeft ex- 
panfion of the lands which they traverfe. Thus, the two 
Americas, which extend much more in the direction of 
fouth and north than in that of eaft and weft, are per¬ 
vaded by the fmmenfe chain of the Rocky or Columbian 
mountains, and by the Andes. This chain, at once the 
longeft and moft elevated on the globe, is prolonged 
without interruption from fouth to north, and approaches 
almoft equally near to either pole, from which its two 
extremities are removed only between thirty and forty 
degrees. The greateft dimenfion of Afia is meafured 
by a curve, extending from the Dardanelles weftward to 
Behring’s Straits, and eaftward inclining to the north ; 
and Mount Taurus in Afia Minor, Caucafus, the moun¬ 
tains of the two Bucharias, the Himmalaya or Thibetian 
Alps, and the Altaic and Jablonnoic mountains, which 
form the principal and the moft elevated chains of this 
continent, are alfo directed from weft to north-eaft, and 
in the line of that largeft dimenfion. Europe, w^iich, 
confidered phyfically, is only a prolongation of Afia, is 
in like manner traverfed from eaft to weft by the fame 
principal chains; which are in fome meafure continued 
by the Balkan and Carpathian mountains, and by the 
Alps, Cevennes, and Pyrenees. 
The dilatation of the two continents of the New World, 
towards the eaft, is accompanied by the chain of the Al¬ 
leghany or Blue Mountains, which ftretch out in a di- 
redlion parallel with the coaft from fouth-weft to north- 
eaft; and by the mountains of Brafil, which follow the 
Jine of the coaft. The peninfulae of California and Flo¬ 
rida are divided in the middle by mountains which, 
like themfelves, ftretch from north to fouth ; while the 
mountains of the peninfula of Alatfka, thofe of the illands 
of Cuba, St. Domingo, Jamaica, and Porto Rico, extend, 
on the contrary, from weft to eaft, in the diredlion of the 
largeft expanlion of the peninfula, and of the illands which 
they traverfe; and confequently in a diredlion contrary 
to that of the two continents of the New World. The 
fame appearances prevail in Afia: Arabia, India, the pe¬ 
ninfula of Malacca, and thofe of Korea and Kamtfchatka, 
are traverfed by chains of mountains which extend from 
north to fouth, and in the oppofite diredlion to that of 
the continent. The Iberian chain, which in Spain makes 
a right angle with the Pyrenees; the Appennines, which 
divide Italy, throughout its length ; the Dofrefels, or 
Scandinavian Alps, and the Uralian Mountains, which 
follow the dilatation of the European continent towards 
the eaft; all thefe chains, which ftretch from fouth to 
north, are inferior in height to the Carpathian mountains, 
the Alps, and the Pyrenees, or to the principal chains 
which traverfe Europe in the contrary diredlion, namely, 
from eaft to weft ; and they furnilh lo many evident proofs 
of the law which is here propounded. 
It is in the regions of mountains that nature difplays 
her moft aftonilhing afpedls, and all the charms or her 
pidturefque beauty. Smiling and fruitful valleys, the re¬ 
fuge of induliry and happinefs, are con traded with the 
naked and barren fummits which encompafs them ; with 
thofe huge ridges, in veiled in eternal fnow ; with thofe 
refplendent glaciers, the abode of filence and of death. It 
is on the fublime heights of mountains that we breathe a 
purer air, that we are confcious of a more lively and de¬ 
lightful fenfation of exiftence, that we contemplate the 
clouds and the thunder rolling far beneath our feet, and 
that we embrace in vifion that immenfe horizon on which 
TAIN. 
whole kingdoms appear like patch-work, and flattened, 
as on our maps. But it is alfo in mountains that the 
powers of nature feem to maintain a perpetual ftruggle, 
and that they threaten, in the moft alarming manner, the 
exiftence of men and of all animals. Snow and Hones 
agglomerate in their fall, accumulate as they roll, and 
form thofe dreadful avalanches which bury entire villages : 
rocks break afunder, or tumble down, crufhing the habi¬ 
tations, filling up lakes, or obltrudting rivers, and caufing 
them to overflow: the ftorms murmur and explode with 
hideous din, and let loofe winds which overturn every 
thing in their courfe : the rains, in an inftant, produce 
devaftating torrents, and change into a rapid and me¬ 
nacing river the limpid ftream, on whofe margin, a few 
moments before, the feeble child fearlefsly fported. It is 
in the mountains, or near the chains which they form, 
that we contemplate, with the deepeft feelings of appre- 
lienfion, the molt majeftic and the moft formidable of all 
natural phenomena, that of volcanos, &c. 
Who are thofe that, in the profecution of philofophical 
difcoveries, will venture to brave the rigours of the north 
pole, of that fpot on the globe which knows but one day 
and one night in the year, and where the guiding needle 
can no longer point to the north or the fouth ? Who 
would be fufficiently intrepid to advance into the midfl: 
of thofe mountains and pyramids of cryftal, or to fet 
foot on thofe lands which the accumulated congelations 
of winters have rendered undillinguilhable from waves 
confolidated by the cold ; where rocks fplit and difplode 
with a noife like thunder, by the mere force of ice inter- 
pofed in their crevices ? Who would not dread to be ex- 
pofed to the obfcurity of that zone, where the enduring 
nights and the denfe and gloomy fogs feem to give eter¬ 
nity to darknefs? The fombre horrors of the fcene are, 
however, at intervals, enlightened by the moon’s filver 
dilk; and the aurora borealis is fuddenly fpread abroad, 
like the radiance of a vaft conflagration, darting forth in 
ftreams, rolling in fiery waves, or whirling in rapid vo¬ 
lumes : in the atmofphere all is commotion, and on the 
ground all is ftillnefs. This meteor fometimes fheds over 
thefe frozen folitudes and dillant fnows a dingy glare, a 
pale light, a myfterious tint, a magical ambiguity of day; 
the moll abfolute filence reigns in fpace: except that, 
from fome remote recefs, mournful and hollow echoes 
repeat the hoarle and lavage defcantof aquatic birds, en¬ 
feebled by the cold, tormented with hunger, and roam¬ 
ing forlorn in thefe horrible deferts. But foon a panic- 
terror l'eizes on the adventurous traveller; a tremendous 
cralh is heard; mountains of ice break afunder, totter, 
impinge on one another, prefent a partial opening, float, 
and difperfe in threatening fragments; a blocking and 
inevitable death now Hares him in the face, as the laft 
term of the perils which he has encountered, and of the 
bufferings which he has endured. Walclienaer's Cojhtologie, 
Paris, 1815. 
Burning Mountains. See Etna, Hecla, Vesuvius, 
See. fee alfo Volcano. 
Marble Mountains. Of thefe there are great num¬ 
bers in Egypt, from which, though immenfe quantities 
have been carried off for the multitude of great works 
eredted by the ancient Egyptians; yet, in the opinion of 
Mr. Bruce, who palled by them in his journey to Abylfi- 
nia, there is Hill a fufficient fupply to build Rome, Athens, 
Corinth, Syracufe, Memphis, Alexandria, and half a dozen 
more of fuch cities. The firft mountain of this kind 
mentioned by Mr. Bruce, is one oppofite to Terfowey, 
confifting partly of green marble, partly of granite, with 
a red blulh upon a grey ground, and fquare oblong foots. 
Here he law a monftrous obelilk of marble very nearly 
fquare, broken at the end, and nearly thirty feet long 
and nineteen feet in the face. Throughout the plain 
there were fcattered final 1 pieces of jafper, with green 
white, and red, Ipots, called in Italy diafpro J'anguineo: 
and all the mountains upon that fide feemed to confill of 
the 
