Physical Geography, Volume 1

DarwinTwo hundred years after his birth and 150 years after the publication of ‘On the Origin of Species’, Charles Darwin and his theories are still the focus of worldwide attention. This series offers not only works by Darwin, but also the writings of his mentors in Cambridge and elsewhere, and a survey of the impassioned scientific, philosophical and theological debates sparked by his ‘dangerous idea’.

Physical GeographyMary Somerville (1780–1872) would have been a remarkable woman in any age, but as an acknowledged leading mathematician and astronomer at a time when the education of most women was extremely restricted, her achievement was extraordinary. Laplace famously told her that ‘There have been only three women who have understood me. These are yourself, Mrs Somerville, Caroline Herschel and a Mrs Greig of whom I know nothing.’ Mary Somerville was in fact Mrs Greig. After (as she herself said) translating Laplace’s work ‘from algebra into common language’, she wrote On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences (1834), also reissued in this series. Her next book, the two-volume Physical Geography (1848), was a synthesis of geography, geology, botany and zoology, drawing on the most recent discoveries in all these fields to present an overview of current understanding of the natural world and the Earth’s place in the universe.

C A M B R I D G E L I B R A R Y C O L L E C T I O NBooks of enduring scholarly value

Cambridge University Press has long been a pioneer in the reissuing of out-of-print titles from its own backlist, producing digital reprints of books that are still sought after by scholars and students but could not be reprinted economically using traditional technology. The Cambridge Library Collection extends this activity to a wider range of books which are still of importance to researchers and professionals, either for the source material they contain, or as landmarks in the history of their academic discipline.

Drawing from the world-renowned collections in the Cambridge University Library, and guided by the advice of experts in each subject area, Cambridge University Press is using state-of-the-art scanning machines in its own Printing House to capture the content of each book selected for inclusion. The files are processed to give a consistently clear, crisp image, and the books finished to the high quality standard for which the Press is recognised around the world. The latest print-on-demand technology ensures that the books will remain available indefinitely, and that orders for single or multiple copies can quickly be supplied.

The Cambridge Library Collection will bring back to life books of enduring scholarly value (including out-of-copyright works originally issued by other publishers) across a wide range of disciplines in the humanities and social sciences and in science and technology.

Physical GeographyVolume 1

Mary S omerville

CAMBRID GE UNIVERSIT Y PRESS

Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paolo, Delhi, Dubai, Tokyo

Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York

www.cambridge.orgInformation on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781108005203

© in this compilation Cambridge University Press 2009

This edition first published 1848This digitally printed version 2009

ISBN 978-1-108-00520-3 Paperback

This book reproduces the text of the original edition. The content and language reflect the beliefs, practices and terminology of their time, and have not been updated.

Cambridge University Press wishes to make clear that the book, unless originally published by Cambridge, is not being republished by, in association or collaboration with, or

with the endorsement or approval of, the original publisher or its successors in title.

• / - / /

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.

MARY SOMERVILLE,AUTHOR OF THE " CONNEXION OF THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES,"

" MECHANISM OF THE HEAVENS."

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

WITH A PORTRAIT.

LONDON:JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.

1848.

TO

SIR JOHN F. W. HERSCHEL, BART., K.H.,

&c. &c.

DEAR SIR JOHN,

I AVAIL myself with pleasure of your permission to

dedicate my book to. you, as it gives me an opportunity of

expressing my admiration of your talents, and my sincere

estimation of your friendship.

I remain, with great regard,

Yours truly,

M A R Y S O M E R V I L L E .

London, 2§th February, 1848.

CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

CHAPTEE I.Page

Geology . . . . . . . . . 1

CHAPTER I I .

Form of the Great Continent—The High Lands of theGreat Continent: the Atlas, Spanish, French, and Ger-man Mountains—The Alps, Balkan, and Apennines • 33

CHAPTER I I I .

The High Lands of the Great Continent, continued:—TheCaucasus—The Western Asiatic Table-land and itsMountains . . . . . . . . 5 5

CHAPTER IV.

The High Lands of the Great Continent, continued:—TheOriental Table-land and its Mountains . . . 6 3

CHAPTER V.

Secondary Mountain Systems of the Great Continent—That of Scandinavia—Great Britain and Ireland—TheUral Mountains—The Great Northern Plain . . 83

CHAPTER V I .

The Southern Low Lands of the Great Continent, withtheir Secondary Table-lands and Mountains . . 9 7

CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

CHAPTER VII.Page

Africa:—Table-land—Cape of Good Hope and EasternCoast — Western Coast — Abyssinia — Senegambia—Low Lands and Deserts 1 1 0

CHAPTER VIII.

American Continent—The Mountains of South America—The Andes—The Mountains of the Parima andBrazil . . . . • • • • • 123

CHAPTER IX.

The Low Lands of South America—Desert of Patagonia—The Pampas of Buenos Ayres—The Silvas of theAmazons—The Llanos of the Orinoco and Venezuela—Geological Notice . . . • . . 1 4 4

CHAPTER X.

Central America — West Indian Islands — GeologicalNotice 158

CHAPTER XI.

North America—Table-land and Mountains of Mexico—The Rocky Mountains — The Maritime Chain andMountains of Russian America . . . . 1 6 7

CHAPTER XII.

North America, continued:—The Great Central Plain orValley of the Mississippi—The Alleghanny Mountains—The Atlantic Slope—The Atlantic Plain —Geolo-gical Notice 1 7 4

CONTENTS OF VOL. I. IX

CHAPTER XIII.Page

Greenland—Spitzbergen—Iceland—Jan May en's Land—Antarctic Lands—Victoria Continent . . . 1 8 9

CHAPTER XIV.

The Continent of Australia—Tasmania, or Van Diemen'sLand—New Zealand—New Guinea—Borneo—Atolls—Encircling Reefs — Coral Reefs—Barrier Reefs—Volcanic Islands—Areas of Subsidence and Elevationin the Bed of the Pacific—Active Volcanos . . 202

CHAPTER XV.

The Ocean—Its Size, Colour, Pressure, and Saltness—Tides, Waves, and Currents — Temperature—Northand South Polar Ice—Inland Seas . . . . 233

CHAPTER XVI.

Springs — Basins of the Ocean — Origin, Course, andFloods of Rivers — Hydraulic Systems of Europe—African Rivers: The Nile, Niger, &c. . . 263

CHAPTER XVII.

Asiatic Rivers—Euphrates and Tigris—River SystemsSouth of the Himalaya—Chinese Rivers—SiberianRivers . . . . . . . . 287

VOL. r.

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.

CHAPTER I.

GEOLOGY.

T H E change produced in the civilized world withina few years, by the application of the powers ofnature to locomotion, is so astonishing, that it leadsto a consideration of the influence of man on thematerial world, his relation with regard to animateand inanimate beings, and the causes which have hadthe greatest effect on the physical, moral, and intel-lectual condition of the human race.

The former state of our terrestrial habitation, thesuccessive convulsions which have ultimately led toits present geographical arrangement, and to theactual distribution of land and water, so powerfullyinfluential on the destinies of mankind, are circum-stances of primary importance.

The position of the earth with regard to the sun,its connexion with the bodies of the solar system,together with its size and form, have been noticedby the author elsewhere. I t was there shown thatour globe forms but an atom in the immensity ofspace, utterly invisible from the nearest fixed star,and scarcely a telescopic object to the remote planets

VOL. I. B

2 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.

of our own system. The increase of temperaturewith the depth below the surface of the earth, andthe tremendous desolation hurled over wide regionsby numerous fire-breathing mountains, show thatman is removed but a few miles from immense lakesor seas of liquid fire. The very shell on which hestands is unstable under his feet, not only from thosetemporary convulsions that seem to shake the globeto its centre, but from a slow almost imperceptibleelevation in some places, and an equally gentle sub-sidence in others, as if the internal molten matterwere subject to secular tides, now heaving and nowebbing, or that the subjacent rocks were in oneplace expanded and in another contracted by changesof temperature.

The earthquake and the torrent, the august andterrible ministers of Almighty power, have torn thesolid earth and opened the seals of the most ancientrecords of creation, written in indelible characterson " the perpetual hills, and the everlasting moun-tains." There we read of the changes that havebrought the rude mass to its present fair state, andof the myriads of beings that have appeared on thismortal stage, have fulfilled their destinies, and havebeen swept from existence to make way for newraces which, in their turn, have vanished from thescene till the creation of man completed the gloriouswork. Who shall define the periods of those morn-ings and evenings when God saw that his work wasgood ? and who shall declare the time allotted to thehuman race, when the generations of the most iinsig-

GEOLOGY. 6

nificant insect existed for unnumbered ages? Yetman is also to vanish in the ever-chantring1 course ofevents. The earth is to be burnt up, and the ele-ments are to melt with fervent heat—to be again re-duced to chaos—possibly to be renovated and adornedfor other races of beings. These stupendous changesmay be but cycles in those great laws of the universe,where all is variable but the laws themselves and Hewho has ordained them.

The earth consists of a great variety of substances,some of which occur in amorphous masses, othersare disposed in regular layers or strata, either hori-zontal or inclined at all angles to the horizon. Bymining, man has penetrated ouly a very little way,but by reasoning from the dip or inclination of thestrata at or near the surface, and from other circum-stances, he has obtained a pretty accurate idea of thestructure of our globe to the depth of about tenmiles. All the substances of which we have any in-formation are divided into four classes, distinguishedby the manner in which they have been formed,namely—Plutonic and Volcanic rocks, both ofigneous origin, though produced under different cir-cumstances; Aqueous or Stratified rocks, entirelydue to the action of water, as the name implies; andMetamorphic rocks, deposited also by water, accord-ing to the opinion of many eminent geologists, andconsequently stratified, but subsequently altered andcrystallized by heat. The Aqueous and Volcanicrocks are formed at the surface of the earth, thePlutonic and Metamorphic at great depths, but all

B 2


of them have originated simultaneously during everygeological period, and are now in a state of slow andconstant progress. The antagonist principles of fireand water have ever been and still are the cause ofthe perpetual vicissitudes to which the crust of theearth is liable.

It has been ascertained by observation that thePlutonic rocks, consisting of the granites and someof the porphyries, were formed in the deep and fierycaverns of the earth, of melted matter, which crystal-lized as it slowly cooled under enormous pressure,and was then heaved in unstratified masses by theelastic force of the internal heat even to the tops ofthe highest mountains, or forced in a semifluid stateinto fissures of the superincumbent strata, sometimesinto the cracks of previously formed granite ; for thatrock, which constitutes the base of so large a portionof the earth's crust, has not been all formed at once ;some portions had been solid while others were yetin a liquid state. This class of rocks is completelydestitute of fossil remains.

Although granite and the volcanic rocks are bothdue to the action of fire, their nature and positionare very different: granite, fused in the interior of theearth, has been cooled and consolidated before comingto the surface; besides, it generally consists of fewingredients, so that it has nearly the same characterin all countries. But as the volcanic fire rises to thevery surface of the earth, fusing whatever it meetswith, volcanic rocks take various forms, not onlyfrom the different kinds of strata which are melted,

GEOLOGY. 0

but from the different conditions under which theliquid matter has been cooled, though most fre-quently on the surface—a circumstance that seemsto have had the greatest effect on its appearance andstructure. Sometimes it approaches so nearly togranite that it is difficult to perceive a distinction ;at other times it becomes glass: in short, all thosemassive, unstratified, and occasionally columnarrocks, as basalt, greenstone, porphyry, and ser-pentine, are due to volcanic fires, and are devoidof fossil remains.

There seems scarcely to have been any age of theworld in which volcanic eruptions have not takenplace in some part of the globe. Lava has piercedthrough every description of rocks, spread over thesurface of those existing at the time, filled their cre-vices, and flowed between their strata. Ever chang-ing its place of action, it has burst out at the bottomof the sea as well as on dry land. Enormous quan-tities of scoriae and ashes have been ejected fromnumberless craters, and have formed extensive de-posits in the sea, in lakes, and on the land, in whichare imbedded the remains of the animals and vege-tables of the epoch. Some of these deposits havebecome hard rock, others remain in a crumblingstate ; and as they alternate with the aqueous strataof almost every period, they contain the fossils ofall the geological epochs, chiefly fresh and salt watertestacese.

According to a theory now generally adopted,which originated with Mr. Lyell, whose works


are models of philosophical investigation, the me-tamorphic rocks, which consist of gneiss, mica-schist, clay-slate, statuary marble, &c, were formedof the sediment of water in regular layers, differ-ing in kind and colour, but, having been depo-sited near the places where plutonic rocks weregenerated, they have been changed by the heattransmitted from the fused matter, and in coolingunder heavy pressure and at great depths they havebecome as highly crystallized as the granite itself,without losing their stratified form. An earthystratum has sometimes been changed into a highlycrystallized rock to the distance of a quarter of amile from the point of contact by transmitted heat,and there are instances of dark-coloured limestonefull of fossil shells, that has been changed into statu-ary marble from that cause. Such alterations mayfrequently be seen to a small extent in rocks adjacentto a stream of lava. There is not a trace of organicremains in the metamorphic rocks ; their strata aresometimes horizontal, but they are usually tilted atall angles to the horizon, and form some of thehighest mountains and most extensive table-lands onthe face of the globe. Although there is the greatestsimilarity in the plutonic rocks in all parts of theworld, they are by no means identical; they differ incolour, and even in ingredients, though these are few.

Aqueous rocks are all stratified, being the sedi-mentary deposits of water. They originate in thewear of the land by rain, streams, or the ocean. Thedebris carried by running water is deposited at the

GEOLOGY. 7

bottom of the seas and lakes, where it is consolidated,and then raised up by subterraneous forces, againto undergo the same process after a lapse of time.By the washing away of the land the lower rocksare laid bare, and, as the materials are deposited indifferent places according to their weight, the strataare exceedingly varied, but consist chiefly of arena-ceous or sandstone rocks, argillaceous or clayeyrocks, and of calcareous rocks composed of sand,clay, and carbonate of lime. They constitute threegreat classes, which, in an ascending order, are theprimary and secondary fossiliferous strata, and theTertiary formations.

The primary fossiliferous strata, the most ancientof all the sedimentary rocks, consisting of lime-stone, sandstones, and shales, are entirely of marineorigin, having been formed far from land at thebottom of a very deep ocean ; consequently they con-tain the exuviae of marine animals only, and after thelapse of unnumbered ages the ripple marks of thewaves are still distinctly visible on some of theirstrata. This series of rocks is subdivided into theCambrian and the upper and lower Silurian systems,on account of differences in their fossil remains.

The Cambrian rocks, sometimes many thousandyards thick, are for the most part destitute of organicremains, but the Silurian rocks abound in themmore and more as the strata lie higher in the series.In the lower Silurian group are the remains of shell-fish, almost all of extinct genera, and the few thathave any affinity to those alive are of extinct species;


Crinoidea, or stone-lilies, which had been fixed tothe rocks like tulips on their stems, are coevalwith the earliest inhabitants of the deep; and thetrilobite, a jointed creature of the crab kind, withprominent eyes, are almost exclusively confined tothe Silurian strata, but the last traces of them arefound in the coal-measures above. In the upperSilurian group are abundance of marine shells ofalmost every order, together with Crinoidea, vastquantities of corals, and some sea-weeds: severalfossil sauroid fish, of extinct genera, but high organ-ization, have been found in the highest beds—theonly vertebrated animal that has yet been discoveredamong the countless profusion of the lower orders ofcreatures that are entombed in the primary fossili-ferous strata. The remains of one or more land-plants, in a very imperfect state, have been found inthe Silurian rocks of North America, which showsthat there had been land with vegetation at that earlyperiod. The type of these plants, as well as the sizeof the shells and the quantity of the coral, indicatethat a uniformly warm temperature had then prevailedover the globe. During the Silurian period an oceancovered the northern hemisphere, islands and landsof moderate size had just begun to rise, and earth-quakes with volcanic eruptions, from insular andsubmarine volcanos, were frequent towards its close.

The secondary fossiliferous strata, which comprisea great geological period, and constitute the principalpart of the high land in Europe, were deposited atthe bottom of an ocean, like the primary, from the

GEOLOGY. 9

debris of all the others carried down by water, andstill bear innumerable tokens of their marine origin,although they have for ages formed part of the dryland. Calcareous rocks are more abundant in thesestrata than in the crystalline, probably because thecarbonic acid was then, as it still is, driven off fromthe lower strata by the internal heat, and came tothe surface as gas or in calcareous springs, whicheither rose in the sea, and furnished materials forshell-fish and coral insects to build their habitationsand form coral reefs, or deposited their calcareousmatter on the land in the form of rocks.

The Devonian or old red sandstone group, inmany places ten thousand feet thick, consisting ofstrata of dark red and other sandstones, marls, coral-line limestones, conglomerates, &c, is the lowest ofthe secondary fossiliferous strata, and forms a linkbetween them and the Silurian rocks by an analogyin their fossil remains. It has fossils peculiarly itsown, but it has also some shells and corals commonto the strata both above and below it. Thereare various families of extinct sauroid fish in thisgroup, some of which were gigantic, others hadstrong bony shields on their heads, and one genus,covered with enamelled scales, had appendages likewings. The shark approaches nearer to some ofthese ancient fish than any other now living.

During the long period of perfect tranquillity thatprevailed after the Devonian group was deposited, avery warm, moist, and extremely equable climate,which extended all over the globe, had clothed the


islands and lands in the ocean then covering thenorthern hemisphere with exuberant tropical forestsand jungles. Subsequent inroads of fresh water orof the sea, or rather partial sinkings of the land, hadsubmerged these forests and jungles, which, beingmixed with layers of sand and mud, had in time beenconsolidated into one mass, and were then either leftdry by the retreat of the waters, or gently raisedabove their surface.

These constitute the remarkable group of the car-boniferous strata, which consists of numberlesslayers of various substances filled with a prodigiousquantity of the remains of fossil land-plants, inter-mixed with beds of coal, which is entirely composedof vegetable matter. In some cases the plants appearto have been carried down by floods and deposited inestuaries, but in most instances the beauty, delicacy,and sharpness of the impressions show that they hadgrown on the spot where the coal was formed. Morethan three hundred fossil plants have been collectedfrom the shale where they abound, frequently withtheir seeds and fruits, so that enough remains to showthe peculiar nature of this flora, whose distinguishingfeature was the preponderance of ferns : among thesethere were tree-ferns which must have been forty orfifty feet high. There were also plants resemblingthe horse-tail tribe, of gigantic size ; others like thetropical club mosses: an aquatic plant of an extinctfamily was very abundant, beside many others to whichwe have nothing analogous. Forest-trees of greatmagnitude, of the pine and fir tribes, flourished at

GEOLOGY. 1 1

that period. The remains of an extinct araucaria, oneof the largest of the pine family, have been found inthe British coal-fields ; the existing species now growin very warm countries : a few rare instances occurof grasses, palms, and liliaceous plants. The botan-ical districts were very extensive when the coal-plantswere growing, for the species are nearly identicalthroughout the coal-fields of Europe and America.From the extent of the ocean, the insular structureof the land, the profusion of ferns and fir-trees, andthe warm, moist, and equable climate, the northernhemisphere during the formation of the coal strata isthought to have borne a strong resemblance to theSouth Pacific, with its fern and fir clothed lands ofNew Zealand, Kerguelen islands, and others.

The animal remains of this period are in the moun-tain limestone, a rock occasionally nine hundred feetthick, which, in some instances, lies beneath the coal-measures, and sometimes alternates with the shaleand sandstone. They consist of crinoidea and ma-rine testaceae, among which the size of the chamberedshells, as well as that of the corals, shows that theocean was very warm at that time, even in the highnorthern latitudes.

The coal strata have been very much brokenand deranged in many places by earthquakes,which frequently occurred during the secondaryfossiliferous period, and from time to time raisedislands and land from the deep. However, theseand all other changes that have taken place onthe earth have been gradual and partial, whetherbrought about by fire or water. The older rocks


are more shattered by earthquakes than the newer,because the movement came from below ; but theseconvulsions have never extended all over the earthat the same time—they have always been local: forexample, the Silurian strata have been dislocated andtossed in Britain, while a vast area in the southof Sweden and Russia still retains a horizontal po-sition. There is no proof that any mountain-chainhas ever been raised at once; on the contrary, theelevation has always been produced by a long-con-tinued and reiterated succession of internal convul-sions, with intervals of repose. In many instancesthe land has risen up or sunk down by an impercep-tible equable motion continued for ages, while inother places the surface of the earth has remainedstationary for long geological periods.

The magnesian limestone, or permian formation,comes immediately above the coal-measures, andconsists of breccias or conglomerates, gypsum,sandstone, marl, &c. ; but its distinguishing featureis a yellow limestone rock, containing carbonate ofmagnesia, which often takes a granular texture, andis then known as dolomite. The permian formationhas a fossil flora and fauna peculiar to itself, mingledwith those of the coal strata. Here the remnant ofan earlier creation gradually tends to its final extinc-tion, and a new one begins to appear. The flora is,in many instances, specifically the same with that inthe coal strata below. Certain fish are also commonto the two, which never appear again. They belongto a race universal in the early geological periods,and bear a strong resemblance to saurian reptiles.

GEOLOGY. 1 3

A small number of existing genera only, such as theshark and sturgeon, make some approach to thestructure of these ancient inhabitants of the waters.The new creation is marked by the introduction oftwo species of saurian reptiles: the fossil remains ofone have been found in the magnesian limestone inEngland, and those of the other in a correspondingformation in Germany. They are the earliest mem-bers of a family which was to have dominion in theland and water for ages.

A series of red marls, rock-salt, and sandstones,which have arisen from the disintegration of me-tamorphic slates and porphyritic trap containingoxide of iron, and known as the trias or new redsandstone system, lies above the magnesian limestone.In England this formation is particularly rich inrock-salt, which, with layers of gypsum and marl, issometimes six hundred feet thick ; but in this coun-try the muschelkalk is wanting, which in Germanyis so remarkable for the quantity of organic remains.At this time creatures like frogs of enormous di-mensions had been frequent, as they have left theirfootsteps on what must then have been a soft shore.Forty-seven genera of fossil remains have been foundin the trias in Germany, consisting of shells, cartilaginous fish, encrinites, &c, all distinct in species,and many distinct in genera, from the organic fossilsof the magnesian limestone below, and also fromthose entombed in the strata above.

During a long period of tranquillity the oolite orJurassic group was next deposited in a sea of vari-


able depth, and consisted of sands, sandstones, marls,clays, and limestone. At this time there was a com-plete change in the aqueous deposits all over Europe.The red iron-stained arenaceous rooks, the blackcoal, and dark strata were succeeded by light blueclays, pale yellow limestones, and, lastly, whitechalk. The water that deposited the strata musthave been highly charged with carbonate of lime,since few of the formations of that period are withoutcalcareous matter, and calcareous rocks were formedto a prodigious extent throughout Europe; the Py-renees, Alps, Apennines, and Balkan abound in them,and the Jura "mountains, which have given theirname to the series, are formed of them. The Euro-pean ocean then teemed with animal life; wholebeds consist almost entirely of marine shells andcorals. Belemnites and ammonites, from an inch indiameter to the size of a cart-wheel, are entombedby myriads in the strata ; whole forests of that beau-tiful zoophite, the stone-lily, flourished on the sur-face of the oolite, then under the waters; and theencrinite, one of the same genus, is embedded inmillions in the enchoreal shell marble, which occu-pies such extensive tracts in Europe. Fossil fishare numerous in these strata, but different from thoseof the coal series, the permian formation, and trias.Not one genus of the fish of this period are now inexistence. The newly-raised islands and lands wereclothed with vegetation like that of the large islandsof the intertropical Archipelagos of the present day,which, though less rich than during the carboni-

GEOLOGY. 15

ferous period, still indicates a very moist and warmclimate. Ferns were less abundant, and they wereassociated with various genera and species of thecycadese, which had grown on the southern coast ofEngland, and in other parts of northern Europe,congeners of the present cycas and zamia of thetropics. These plants had been very numerous,and the pandanse, or screw-pine, the first tenantof the new lands in ancient and modern times,is a family found in a fossil state in the inferioroolite of England, which was but just rising fromthe deep at that time. The species now flourishinggrows only on the coasts of such coral islands in thePacific as have recently emerged from the waves.In the upper strata of this group, however, the confervse and monocotyledonous plants become morerare—an indication of a change of climate.

The new lands that were scattered in the ocean ofthe oolitic period were drained by rivers, and in-habited by huge crocodiles and saurian reptiles of gi-gantic size, mostly of extinct genera. The crocodilescame nearest to modern reptiles, but the others,though bearing a remote similitude in general struc-ture to living forms, were quite anomalous, combin-ing in one the structure of various distinct creatures,and so monstrous that they must have been morelike the visions of a troubled dream than things ofreal existence ; yet in organization a few of themcame nearer to the type of living mammalia thanany existing reptiles do. Some of these saurianshad lived in the water, others were amphibious, and


the various species of one genus even had wings likea bat, and fed on insects. There were both her-bivorous and predaceous saurians, and from theirsize and strength they must have been formidableenemies. Besides, the numbers deposited are sogreat that they must have swarmed for ages in theestuaries and shallow seas of the period, especiallyin the lias, a marine stratum of clay the lowest ofthe oolite series. They gradually declined towardsthe end of the secondary fossiliferous epoch, but as aclass they lived in all subsequent eras, and still existin tropical countries, although the species are verydifferent from their ancient congeners. Tortoises ofvarious kinds were contemporary with the saurians,also a family that still exists. In the stonefield slate,a stratum of the lower oolitic group, there are theremains of insects ; and the bones of two small qua-drupeds have been found there belonging to themarsupial tribe, such as the opossum ; a very re-markable circumstance, because that family of ani-mals at the present time is confined to New Holland,South America, and as far north as Pennsylvania atleast. The great changes in animal life during thisperiod were indications of the successive alterationsthat had taken place on the earth's surface.

The cretaceous strata follow the oolite in ascendingorder, consisting of clay, green and iron sands, bluelimestone, and chalk, probably formed of the decayof coral and shells, which predominates so much inEngland and other parts of Europe, that it has giventhe name and its peculiar feature to the whole group.

GEOLOGY. 17

It is, however, by no means universal; the chalk iswanting in many parts of the world where the otherstrata of this series prevail, and then their connexionwith the group can only be ascertained by the iden-tity of their fossil remains. With the exception ofsome beds of coal among the oolitic series, the Weal-den clay, the lowest of the cretaceous group in Eng-land, is a fresh-water formation, and the tropicalcharacter of its flora shows that the climate was stillvery warm. Plants allied to the zamias and cycadesof our tropical regions, many ferns and pines of thegenus araucaria, characterized its vegetation, andthe upright stems of a fossil forest at Portland showthat it had been covered with trees. I t was inha-bited by tortoises approaching to families now livingin warm countries, and saurian reptiles of five differ-ent genera swarmed in the lakes and estuaries. Thisclay contains fresh-water shells, fish of the carp kind,and the bones of wading birds. The Wealden clayis one of the various instances of the subsidence ofland, of which there were others during this period.

The cretaceous strata above our Wealden clay arefull of marine exuviae. There are vast tracts ofsand in northern Europe, and many very extensivetracts of chalk, but in the southern part of the con-tinent the cretaceous rocks assume a different cha-racter. There and elsewhere extensive limestonerocks, filled with very peculiar shells, show thatwhen the cretaceous strata were forming an oceanextended from the Atlantic into Asia, which coveredthe south of France, all southern Europe, part of

VOL. i. c


Syria, the isles of the iEgean Sea, and the coasts ofThrace and the Troad. The remains of turtles havebeen found in the cretaceous group, quantities ofcoral, and abundance of shells of extinct species ;some of the older kinds still existed, new ones wereintroduced, and some of the most minute species ofmicroscopic shells, which constitute a large portionof the chalk, are supposed to be the same with crea-tures now alive, the first instance of identity of spe-cies in the ancient and modern creation. Anapproximation to recent times is to be observed alsoin the arrangement of organized nature, since at thisearly period, and indeed even in the silurian andoolitic epochs, the marine fauna was divided, as now,into distinct geographical provinces. The greatsaurians were on the decline, and many of them werefound no more, but a gigantic creature, intermediatebetween the living monitor and iguana, lived at thisperiod.

An immense geological cycle elapsed between thetermination of the secondary fossiliferous strata andthe beginning of the tertiary. With the latter a neworder of things commenced approaching more closelyto the actual state of the globe. During the tertiaryformation the same causes under new circumstancesproduced an infinite variety in the order and kind ofthe strata, accompanied by a corresponding changein animal and vegetable life. The old creation,which had nothing in common with the existingorder of things, had passed away and given place toone more nearly approaching to that which now

GEOLOGY. 19

prevails. Among the myriads of beings that in-habited the earth and the ocean during the secondaryfossiliferous epoch scarcely one species is to be foundin the tertiary. Two planets could hardly differmore in their natural productions. This break inthe law of continuity is the more remarkable, ashitherto some of the newly created animals werealways introduced before the older were extinguished.The circumstances and climate suited to the onebecame more and more unfit for the other, whichconsequently perished gradually while their suc-cessors increased. It is possible that as obser-vations become more extended this hiatus may berilled up.

The series of rocks from the granite to the end ofthe secondary fossiliferous strata, taken as a whole,constitute the solid crust of the globe, and in thatsense are universally diffused over the earth's surface.The tertiary strata occupy the hollows formed in thiscrust, whether by subterraneous movements, by lakes,or denudation by water, as in the estuaries of rivers,and consequently occur in irregular tracts, often,however, of prodigious thickness and extent. In-deed they seem to have been as widely developed asany other formation, though time has been wantingto bring them into view.

The innumerable basins and hollows with whichthe continents and larger islands had been indentedfor ages after the termination of the secondary fos-siliferous series, had sometimes been fresh-waterlakes, and at other times were inundated by the sea;

c 2


consequently the deposits which took place duringthese changes alternately contain the spoils of ter-restrial and marine animals. The frequent intrusionof volcanic strata among the tertiary formationsshows that, in Europe, the earth had been in a verydisturbed state, and that these repeated vicissitudeshad been occasioned by elevations and depressionsof the soil, as well as by the action of water.

There are three distinct groups in these strata:the lowest tertiary or Eiocene group, so called byMr. Lyell, because, among the myriads of fossilshell-fish it contains, very few are identical withthose now living; the Meiocene, or middle group,has a greater number of the exuviae of existing spe-cies of shells ; and the Pleiocene, or upper tertiarygroup, still more. Though frequently heaved upto great elevations on the flanks of the mountain-chains, as, for example, on the Alps and Apen-nines, by far the greater part of the tertiary stratamaintain their original horizontal position in thevery places where they were formed. Immenseinsulated deposits of this kind are to be met withall over the world; Europe abounds with them,London and Paris stand on such basins, and theycover immense tracts both in North and SouthAmerica.

The monstrous reptiles had mostly disappeared,and the mammalia now took possession of the earth,of forms scarcely less anomalous than their prede-cessors, though approaching more nearly to thosealive.

GEOLOGY. 2 1

Numerous species of extinct animals that livedduring the earliest or Eiocene period have beenfound in various parts of the world, especially inthe Paris basin, of the order of Pachydermata, tothe greater number of which we have nothing analo-gous ; they were mostly amphibious and herbivorousquadrupeds, which had frequented the borders ofthe rivers and lakes that covered the greater part ofEurope at that time. This is the more extraordi-nary, as existing animals of that order, namely, adaman and three tapirs, are confined to the torridzone. These creatures were widely diffused, andsome of them were associated with genera still ex-isting, though of totally different species; such asanimals allied to the racoon and dormouse, the ox,bear, deer, the fox, the dog, and others. Althoughthese quadrupeds differ so widely from those of thepresent day, the same proportion existed then asnow between the carnivorous and herbaceous genera.The spoils of marine mammalia of this period havealso been found, sometimes at great elevations abovethe sea, all of extinct species, and some of thesecetacea were of huge size. This marvellous changeof the creative power was not confined to the earthand the ocean; the air also was now occupied bymany extinct races of birds allied to the owl, buz-zard, quail, curlew, &c. The climate must stillhave been warmer than at present from the remainsof land and sea plants found in high latitudes. Evenin England bones of the opossum, monkey, and boahave been discovered, all animals of warm countries,


besides fossil sword and saw fish, both of generaforeign to the British seas.

During the Meiocene period new amphibiousquadrupeds were associated with the old, of whichthe deinotherium is the most characteristic, andmuch the largest of the mammalia yet found, farsurpassing the largest elephant in size, of a singularform, and unknown nature.

The palseotherium was also of this period, andalso the mastodon, both of large dimensions. Va-rious families, and even genera, of quadrupeds nowexisting were associated with these extraordinarycreatures, though of extinct species, such as theelephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, tapir, horse,bear, wolf, hyaena, weasel, beaver, ox, buffalo, deer,&c. ; and also marine mammalia, as dolphins, sea-calves, walruses, and lamantines. Indeed, in theconstant increase of animal life manifested throughoutthe whole of the tertiary strata, the forms approachnearer to living species as their remains lie highin the series.

In the older Pleiocene period some of the largeamphibious quadrupeds, and other genera of mam-malia of the earlier tertiary periods, appear nomore; but there were the mastodon, and the elephasprimogenius, or mammoth, some species of which,of prodigious size, were associated with numerousquadrupeds of existing genera, but lost species.Extinct species of almost all the quadrupeds nowalive seem to have inhabited the earth at that time;their bones have been discovered in caverns ; they

GEOLOGY. 23

were imbedded in the breccias and in most of thestrata of that epoch—as the hippopotamus, rhinoceros,elephant, horse, bear, wolf, water-rat, hysena, andvarious birds. It is remarkable that in the cavernsof Australia the fossil bones all belong to extinctspecies of gigantic kangaroos and wombats, animalsbelonging to the marsupial family, which are sopeculiarly the inhabitants of that country at thepresent day, but of diminished size. The newerPleiocene strata show that the same analogy existedbetween the extinct and recent mammalia of SouthAmerica, which, like their living congeners, as faras we know, belonged to that continent alone ; forthe fossil remains, quite different from those in theold world, are of animals of the same genera withthe sloths, anteaters, and armadilloes, which nowinhabit that country, but of vastly superior size anddifferent species. The megatherium and equus cur-videns, or extinct horse, had so vast a range inAmerica, that, while Mr. Lyell collected their bonesin Georgia, in 3° N. latitude, Mr. Darwin broughtthem from the corresponding latitude in SouthAmerica, The equus curvidens differed as muchfrom the living horse as the quagga or zebra does,and the European fossil horse is also a distinct andlost animal.

The greater part of the land in the northernhemisphere was elevated above the deep during thetertiary period, and such lands as already existedacquired additional height; consequently the climate,which had previously been tropical, became gradually


colder, for an increase of land, which raises thetemperature between the tropics, has exactly thecontrary effect in higher latitudes. Hence excessivecold prevailed during the latter part of the Pleioceneperiod, and a great part of the European continentwas covered by an ocean full of floating ice, notunlike that experienced at this day off the north-eastern coast of America.

During the latter part of the Pleiocene period,however, the bed of that glacial ocean rose partially,and after many vicissitudes the European continentassumed nearly the form and climate it now has.There is every reason to believe that the glacial seaextended also over great portions of the arctic landsof Asia and America. Old forms of animal andvegetable life were destroyed by these alterations inthe surface of the earth and the consequent changeof temperature; and when in the progress of thePleiocene period the mountain-tops appeared asislands above the water, they were clothed with theflora and peopled by the animals they still retain;and new forms were added as the land rose andbecame dry and fitted to receive and maintain theraces of beings now alive, all of which had possessionof the earth for ages prior to the historical or humanperiod. Some of the extinct animals had long re-sisted the great vicissitudes of the times; of thesethe mammoth, or elephas primogenius, whose fossilremains are found all over Europe, Asia, and Ame-rica, but especially in the gelid soil of Siberia, aloneoutlived its associates, the last remnant of a former

GEOLOGi'. 25

world. In two or three instances this animal hasbeen discovered entire, entombed in frozen mud,with its hair and its flesh so fresh that wolves anddogs fed upon it. It has been supposed that, as theSiberian rivers flow for hundreds of miles from thesouthern part of the country to the Arctic Ocean,these elephants might have been drowned by floodswhile browsing in the milder regions, and that theirbodies were carried down by the rivers and im-bedded in mud, and frozen before they had timeto decay. Although the congeners of this animalare now the inhabitants of the torrid zone, they mayhave been able to endure the cold of a Siberianwinter. Baron Cuvier found that this animal differedas much from the living elephant as a horse doesfrom an ass. The supply of food in summer wasprobably sufficient, since the quantity requisite forthe maintenance of the larger animals is by no meansin proportion to their bulk, and it may have migratedto a more genial climate in the cold months.

Shell-fish seem to have been more able to endureall the great geological changes than any of theirorganic associates; they show a constant approxi-mation to modern species during the progress of thetertiary periods. The whole of these strata containenormous quantities of shells of extinct species ; inthe oldest, three and a half per cent, of the shellsare identical with some now existing, while on theuppermost strata of this geological period there arenot less than from ninety to ninety-five in a hundredidentical with those now alive.


Of all the fossil fishes from the silurian strata tothe end of the tertiary, not one is specifically thesame with living forms, except the Mallotus villosus,or captan, of the salmon family, and perhaps a fewothers of the most recent of these periods. In theEiocene strata one-third belong to extinct genera.

Under the vegetable mould in every countrythere is a stratum of loose sand, gravel, and mudlying upon the subjacent rocks, often of great thick-ness, called alluvium, which in the high latitudes ofNorth America and Europe is mixed with enormousfragments of rock, sometimes angular and sometimesrounded and waterworn, which have been trans-ported hundreds of miles from their origin. It isthere known as the Boulder formation, or NorthernDrift, because, from the identity of the boulderswith the rocks of the northern mountains, theyevidently have come from them, and their size be-comes less as the distance increases. In Russiathere are blocks of great magnitude that have beencarried eight hundred and even a thousand milessouth-east from their origin in the Scandinavianrange. There is every reason to believe that suchmasses, enormous as they are, have been transportedby icebergs and deposited when the northern partsof the continents were covered by the glacial sea.The same process is now in progress in the highsouthern latitudes.

The last manifestation of creative power, withfew exceptions, differs specifically from all that wentbefore; the recent strata contain only the exuviae

GEOLOGY. 27

of animals now living, often mixed with the bonesand the works of man.

The thickness of the fossiliferous strata up to theend of the tertiary formation has been estimated atabout seven or eight miles; so that the time requi-site for their deposition must have been immense.Every river carries down mud, sand, or gravel tothe sea ; the Ganges brings more than 700,000 cubicfeet of mud every hour, the Yellow River in China2,000,000, and the Mississippi still more ; yet, not-withstanding these great deposits, the Italian hy-drographer, Manfredi, has estimated that, if thesediment of all the rivers on the globe were spreadequally over the bottom of the ocean, it would re-quire 1000 years to raise its bed one foot; so atthat rate it would require 3,960,000 years to raisethe bed of the ocean alone to a height nearly equalto the thickness of the fossiliferous strata, or sevenmiles and a half, not taking account of the wasteof the coasts by the sea itself; but if the wholeglobe be considered instead of the bottom of thesea only, the time would be nearly four times asgreat, even supposing as much alluvium to be de-posited uniformly both with regard to time andplace, which it never is. Besides, in various placesthe straia have been more than once carried to thebottom of the ocean and again raised above itssurface by subterranean fires after many ages, sothat the whole period from the beginning of theseprimary fossiliferous strata to the present day mustbe great beyond calculation, and only bears com-


parison with the astronomical cycles, as might natu-rally be expected, the earth being without doubtof the same antiquity with the other bodies of thesolar system. What then shall we say if the timebe included which the granitic, metamorphic, andrecent series occupied in forming? These greatperiods of time correspond wonderfully with thegradual increase of animal life and the successivecreation and extinction of numberless orders ofbeing, and with the incredible quantity of organicremains buried in the crust of the earth in everycountry on the face of the globe.

Every great geological change in the nature ofthe strata was accompanied by the introduction of anew race of beings, and the gradual extinction ofthose that had previously existed, their structureand habits being no longer fitted for the new cir-cumstances in which these changes had placed them.The change, however, never was abrupt, except atthe beginning of the tertiary strata; and it may beobserved that, although the mammalia came last,there is no proof of progressive development, foranimals and plants of high organization appearedamong the earliest of their kind.

The geographical distribution of animated beingswas much more extensive in the ancient seas andland than in later times. In very remote ages thesame animal inhabited the most distant parts of thesea; the corallines built from the Equator to withinten or fifteen degrees of the Pole; and, previous tothe formation of the carboniferous strata, there ap-

GEOLOGY. 29

pears to have been even a greater uniformity in thevegetable than in the animal world, though NewHolland had formed even then a peculiar district,supposing the coal in that country to be of the sameepoch as in Europe and America ; but as the stratabecame more varied, species were less widely dif-fused. Some of the saurians were inhabitants ofboth the Old and New World, while others lived inthe latter only. In the tertiary periods the animalsof Australia and America differed nearly as muchfrom those of Europe as they do at the present day.The world was then, as now, divided into greatphysical regions, each inhabited by a peculiar raceof animals ; and even the different species of shell-fish of the same sea were confined to certain shores.Of 405 species of shell-fish which inhabited theAtlantic Ocean during the early and middle part ofthe tertiary period, only twelve were common tothe American and European coasts. In fact, thedivisions of the animal and vegetable creation intogeographical districts had been in the latter.periodscontemporaneous with the rise of the land, eachportion of which as it rose above the deep had beenclothed with a vegetation and peopled with creaturessuited to its position with regard to the equator, andto the existing circumstances of the globe; and themarine creatures had no doubt been divided intodistricts at the same periods, because the bed of theocean had been subject to similar changes.

The quantity of fossil remains is so great thatprobably not a particle of matter exists on the sur-


face of the earth that has not at some time formedpart of a living creature. Since the commencementof animated existence, zoophytes have built coralreefs extending hundreds of miles, and mountains oflimestone are full of their remains all over the globe.Mines of shells are worked to make lime ; ranges ofhills and rock, many hundred feet thick, are almostentirely composed of them, and they abound in everymountain-chain throughout the earth. The prodi-gious quantity of microscopic shells discovered byM. Ehrenberg is still more astonishing ; shells notlarger than a grain of sand form entire mountains :a great portion of the hills of Casciana in Tuscanyconsist of chambered shells so minute that SignorSaldani collected 10,454 of them from one ounce ofstone. Chalk is often almost entirely composed ofthem. Tripoli, a fine powder long in use for polish-ing metals, is almost entirely composed of shells;the polishing property is owing to their siliceouscoats; and there are even hills of great extent con-sisting of this substance, the debris of an infinitevariety of microscopic insects.

The facility with which many slates and clays aresplit is owing, in some instances, to layers of minuteshells. Fossil fish are found in all parts of theworld, and in all the fossiliferous strata, with theexception of some of the lowest, but each great geo-logical period had species of fish peculiar to itself.

The remains of the great saurians are innumerable;those of extinct quadrupeds are very numerous ; butthere is no circumstance in the whole science of

GEOLOGY. 3 1

fossil geology more remarkable than the inexhaustiblemultitudes of fossil elephants that are found inSiberia. Their tusks have been an object of trafficin ivory for centuries, and in some places they havebeen in such prodigious quantities, that the groundis tainted with the smell of animal matter. Theirhuge skeletons are found from the borders of Europethrough all northern Asia to its extremest point,and from the foot of the Altai mountains to theshores of the Frozen Ocean, a surface equal in ex-tent to the whole of Europe. Some islands in theArctic Sea are composed almost entirely of theirremains, mixed with the bones of various other ani-mals of living genera, but extinct species.

Equally wonderful is the quantity of fossil plantsthat still remain, if it be considered that from thefrail nature of many vegetable substances multitudesmust have perished without leaving a trace behind.The vegetation that covered the terrestrial part ofthe globe previous to the formation of the carboni-ferous strata had far surpassed in exuberance therankest tropical jungles. There are many coal-measures of great extent in various parts of theearth, especially in North America, where that ofPittsburg occupies an area of about fourteen thou-sand square miles; and that in the Illinois is notmuch inferior to the area of all England.

As coal is entirely a vegetable substance, someidea may be formed of the richness of the ancientflora; in latter times it was less exuberant, and neverhas again been so luxuriant, probably on account


of the decrease of temperature during the depositionof the tertiary strata, and in the glacial period whichimmediately preceded the creation of the presenttribes of plants and animals. Even after their intro-duction the temperature must have been very low,but by subsequent changes in the distribution ofthe sea and land the cold was gradually mitigated,till at last the climate of the northern hemispherebecame what it is now.

Such is the marvellous history laid open to us onthe earth's surface. Surely it is not the heavensonly that declare the glory of God,—the earth alsoproclaims His handiwork !

CHAPTER II.

FORM OF THE GREAT CONTINENT.—THE HIGH LANDS OF THEGREAT CONTINENT :—THE ATLAS, SPANISH, FRENCH. ANDGERMAN MOUNTAINS—THE ALPS, BALKAN, AND APENNINES.

A T the end of the Tertiary period the earth wasmuch in the same state that it is at present withregard to the distribution of land and water. Thepreponderance of land in the northern hemisphereindicates a prodigious accumulation of internal energyunder these latitudes at a very remote geologicalperiod. The forces that raised the two great con-tinents above the deep, when viewed on a wide scale,must evidently have acted at right angles to oneanother, nearly parallel to the equator in the oldcontinent, and in the direction of the meridian in thenew ; yet the structure of the opposite coasts of theAtlantic points at some connexion between the two.

The tendency of the land to assume a peninsularform is very remarkable ; and it is still more so thatalmost all the peninsulas tend to the south, while tothe north, with a very few exceptions, the two greatcontinents terminate in a very broken line, and.as they sink under the Icy Ocean, the tops of theirhigh lands and mountains rise above the waves andstud the coast with innumerable snow-clad rocks andislands. Eastern Asia is evidently continued in asubaqueous continent from the Indian Ocean across

VOL. I . D


the Pacific nearly to the west coast of America, ofwhich New Holland, the Indian Archipelago, theislands of the Asiatic coast and of Oceania, are thegreat table-lands and summits of its mountain-chains.

Of the Polar lands little is known. Greenlandprobably is part of a continent, the domain ofperpetual snow ; and the recent discovery of so ex-tensive a mass of high volcanic land near the SouthPole is an important event in the history of physicalscience, though the stern severity of the climatemust for ever render it unfit for the abode of animatedbeings, or even for the support of vegetable life. Itseems to form a counterpoise to the preponderance ofdry land in the northern hemisphere. There is some-thing sublime in the contemplation of these lofty andunapproachable regions—the awful realm of ever-during ice and perpetual fire, whose year consists ofone day and one night. The strange and terriblesymmetry in the nature of the lands within the Polarcircles, whose limits are to us a blank, where theantagonist principles of cold and heat meet in theirutmost intensity, fills the mind with that awe whicharises from the idea of the unknown and the indefi-nite.

The mountains, from their rude and shattered con-dition, bear testimony to repeated violent convulsionssimilar to modern earthquakes ; while the high table-lands, and that succession of terraces by which thecontinents sink down from their mountain-ranges tothe plains, to the ocean, and even below it, showalso that the land must have been heaved up occa-

FORM OF THE GREAT CONTINENT. 35

sionally by slow and gentle pressure, such as appearsnow to be gradually elevating the coast of Scandi-navia and many other parts of the earth. The pe-riods in which these majestic operations were effectedmust have been incalculable, since the dry land oc-cupies an area of nearly thirty-eight millions ofsquare miles.

The division of the land is very unequal: the greatcontinent has an area of about twenty-four millionsof square miles, while the extent of America is abouteleven millions, and that of Australia, with its islands,scarcely three ; Africa is more than three times thesize of Europe, and Asia is more than four times aslarge.

The peninsular form of the continents adds greatlyto the extent of their coasts, of such importance tocivilization and commerce. All the shores of Europeare deeply indented and penetrated by the AtlanticOcean, which has formed a number of inland seasof great magnitude, so that it has a greater line ofmaritime coast compared with its size than any otherquarter of the world. The extent of coast from theStraits of Waigatz in the Polar Ocean to the Straitof Caffa at the entrance of the Sea of Azoff, is aboutseventeen thousand miles. The coast of Asia hasbeen much worn by currents, and possibly also bythe action of the ocean occasioned by the rotation ofthe earth from west to east. On the south and eastespecially it is indented by large seas, bays, and gulfs;and the eastern shores are rugged, and encompassedby chains of islands which render navigation dan-

D 2


gerous. Its maritime coast is about thirty-threethousand miles in length.

The coast of Africa, sixteen thousand miles long,is very entire, except perhaps at the Gulf of Guineaand in the Mediterranean. The shores of NorthAmerica have probably been much altered by theequatorial current and the gulf-stream. There can-not be a doubt that these currents, combined with vol-canic action, have hollowed out the Gulf of Mexico,and separated the Antilles and Bahama Islands fromthe continent. The coast is less broken on the west,but in the Icy Ocean there is a labyrinth of gulfs,bays, and creeks. The shores of South America, onboth sides, are very entire, except towards Cape Hornand Southern Chili, where the tremendous surge andcurrents of the ocean in those high latitudes haveeaten into the mountains, and produced endless irre-gularities and fiords, which run far into the land. Thewhole continent of America has a sea-coast of thirty-one thousand miles. Thus it appears that the ratioof the number of linear miles in the coast-line to thatof square miles in the extent of surface, in each ofthese great portions of the globe, is 164 for Europe,376 for Asia, 530 for Africa, and 359 for America.Hence the proportion is most favourable to Europewith regard to civilization and commerce; Americacomes next, then Asia, and last of all Africa, whichhas every natural obstacle to contend with, from theextent and nature of its coasts, the desert characterof the country, and the unwholesomeness of its cli-mate, on the Atlantic coast at least.

HIGH LANDS OF THE GREAT CONTINENT. 37

The continents had been raised from the deepby a powerful effort of the internal forces actingunder widely-extended regions, and the stratifiedcrust of the earth either remained level, rose in un-dulations, or sank into cavities, according to its in-tensity. Some thinner portion of the earth's surface,giving way to the internal forces, had been rent intodeep fissures, and the mountain masses had beenraised by violent concussions, perceptible in the con-vulsed state of their strata. The centres of maximumenergy are marked by the pyrogenous rocks whichgenerally form the nucleus or axis of the mountainmasses, on whose flanks the stratified rocks are tiltedat all angles to the horizon, whence declining onevery side they sink to various depths or stretch tovarious distances on the plains. Enormous as themountain-chains and table-lands are, and prodigiousas the forces that elevated them, they bear a very smallproportion to the mass of the level continents and tothe vast power which raised them even to their in-ferior altitude. Both the high and the low lands hadbeen elevated at successive periods ; some of the veryhighest mountain-chains are but of recent geologicaldate, and some chains that are now far inland oncestood up as islands above the ocean, while marinestrata filled their cavities and formed round theirbases. The influence of mountain-chains on the ex-tent and form of the continents is beyond a doubt.

Notwithstanding the various circumstances of theirelevation, there is everywhere a certain regularityof form in mountain masses, however unsymmetrical


they may appear at first, and rocks of the same kindhave identical characters in every quarter of theglobe. Plants and animals vary with climate, but agranite mountain has the same peculiarities in thesouthern as in the northern hemisphere, at the equa-tor as near the poles. Single mountains, insulatedon plains, are rare, except where they are volcanic;they generally appear in groups intersected by val-leys in every direction, and more frequently inextensive chains symmetrically arranged in a seriesof parallel ridges, separated by narrow longitudinalvalleys, the highest and most rugged of which occupythe centre: when the chain is broad and of the firstorder in point of magnitude, peak after peak arise inendless succession. The lateral ridges and valleysare constantly of less elevation, and are less bold, inproportion to their distance from the central mass,till at last the most remote ridges sink down intogentle undulations. Extensive and lofty branchesdiverge from the principal chains at various angles,and stretch far into the plains. They are often ashigh as the chains from which they spring, and ithappens not unfrequently that these branches areunited by transverse ridges, so that the country isoften widely covered by a network of mountains, and,at the point where these offsets diverge, there is fre-quently a knot of mountains spreading over hundredsof square miles. The circumstances of elevation arenot the only causes of that variety observed in thesummits of mountain-chains ; a very minute differencein the composition and internal structure of a rock

HIGH LANDS OF THE GREAT CONTINENT. 39

has great influence upon its general form, and onthe degree and manner in which it is worn by theweather.

One side of a mountain-range is usually moreprecipitous than the other, but there is nothing inwhich the imagination misleads the judgment morethan in estimating the steepness of a declivity. Inthe whole range of the Alps there is not a singlerock which has 1600 feet of perpendicular height, ora vertical slope of 90°. The declivity of MontBlanc towards the Allee Blanche, precipitous asit seems, does not amount to 45°; and the meaninclination of the Peak of Teneriffe, according toBaron Humboldt, is only 12° 30'. The Silla ofCaraccas, which rises precipitously from the Carib-bean Sea, at an angle of 53° 28', to the height of be-tween six and seven thousand feet, is a majestic in-stance of the nearest approach to perpendicularity ofany great height yet known.

Immediately connected with the mountains arethe high table-lands which form so conspicuous afeature in the Asiatic and American continents.These perpetual storehouses of the waters send theirstreams to refresh the plains, and to afford a highwaybetween the nations. Table-lands of less elevation,sinking in terraces of lower and lower level, consti-tute the links between the high ground and the low,the mountains and the plains, and thus maintain thecontinuity of the land. They frequently are of therichest soil, and enjoy the most genial climate, afford-ing a delightful and picturesque abode to man, though

4 0 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.

the plains are his principal dwelling. Sloping imper-ceptibly from the base of the inferior table-lands, orfrom the last undulations of the mountains to theocean, they carry off the superfluous waters. Fruitful-ness and sterility vary their aspect; immense tractsof the richest soil are favoured by climate and hardlyrequire culture; a greater portion is only renderedproductive by hard labour, compelling man to fulfilhis destiny; while vast regions are doomed to per-petual barrenness, never gladdened by a shower.

The form of the great continent has been deter-mined by an immense zone of mountains and table-lands, lying between the 30th and 40th or 45thparallels of north latitude, which stretches across itfrom W.S.W. to E.N.E., from the coasts of Barbaryand Portugal on the Atlantic Ocean to the farthestextremity of Asia at Behring's Straits in the NorthPacific. North of this lies an enormous plain, ex-tending almost from the Pyrenees to the utmost partof Asia, the greater portion of which is a dead level,or low undulations, uninterrupted, except by theScandinavian and British system on the north, andthe Ural chain, which is of small elevation. Thelow lands south of the mountainous zone are muchindented by the ocean, and of the most diversifiedaspect. By much the greater part of the flat countrylying between the China Sea and the river Indus isof the most exuberant fertility, while that betweenthe Persian Gulf and the foot of the Atlas is, withsome happy exceptions, one of the most desolatetracts on the earth. These southern lowlands, too,

THE ATLAS MOUNTAINS. 4 1

are broken by a few mountain systems of consider-able extent and height.

The Atlas and Spanish mountains form the westernextremity of that great zone of high lands that girdsthe old continent almost throughout its extent.These two mountain systems were certainly at onetime united ; and, from their geological formation,and also the parallelism of their mountain-chains, theymust have been elevated by forces acting in the samedirection,—now, indeed, the Straits of Gibraltar, asea-filled chasm of unfathomable depth, divides them.

A very elevated and continuous mountainous re-gion extends in a broad belt along the north-west ofAfrica, from the promontory of Gher on the Atlanticto the Gulf of Sidra on the Mediterranean, enclosingall the high lands of Morocco, Algiers, and Tunis.It is bounded by the Atlantic and Mediterranean,and insulated from the rest of Africa by the Saharadesert.

This mountain system consists of three parts. Thechain of the Greater Atlas, which is farthest inland,extends from Souse near the Atlantic to the LesserSyrte, and in Morocco forms a mountain-knot15,000 feet high, perpetually covered with snow.

The Lesser Atlas begins at Cape Kotes opposite toGibraltar, and keeps parallel to the Mediterraneantill it attains the Gharian range in Tripoli, the lastand lowest of the Little Atlas, which runs due eastin a uniformly diminishing line till it vanishes in theplains of the Great Syrte. That long, rugged, butlower chain of parallel ridges and groups, which


forms the bold coasts of the Straits of Gibraltar andthe Mediterranean, is only a portion of the LesserAtlas, which rises above it majestically, coveredwith snow. The flanks of the mountains are gene-rally covered with forests, but their summit is one un-interrupted line of bare inaccessible rocks, and theyare rent by fissures frequently not more than a fewfeet wide,—a peculiar feature of the whole system.

The Middle Atlas, lying between the two greatchains, consists of a table-land, rich in valleys andrivers, which rises in successive terraces to the footof the Greater Atlas, separated by ranges of hillsparallel to it. This wide and extensive region hasa delightful climate, abounds in magnificent forests,and the valleys are full of vitality. The crest of theAtlas is of granite and crystalline strata ; their flanksand lower ranges are sandstone and limestone, onwhich the tertiary strata rest.

The Spanish peninsula consists chiefly of a table-land traversed by parallel ranges of mountains, andsurrounded by the sea, except where it is separatedfrom France by the Pyrenees, which extend from theMediterranean to the Bay of Biscay, but are con-tinued by the Cantabrian chain to Cape Finisterreon the Atlantic.

The Pyrenean chain is of moderate height at itsextremities, but its summit maintains a waving linewhose mean altitude is 7000 feet; it rises to a greaterheight on the east; its highest point is the Pic duMidi, 11,000 feet above the sea. The snow lies deepon these mountains during the greater part of the

THE SPANISH MOUNTAINS. 4 3

year, and is perpetual on the highest parts; but theglaciers, which are chiefly on the northern side, areneither so numerous nor so large as in the Alps.

The greatest breadth of this range is about sixtymiles, and its length two hundred and seventy. Itis so steep on the French side, so rugged, and sonotched, that from the plains below its summits looklike the teeth of a saw, whence the" term Sierra hasbeen appropriated to mountains of this form. Onthe Spanish side, gigantic sloping offsets, separatedby deep precipitous valleys, penetrate to the banksof the Ebro. All the Spanish mountains are torn bydeep crevices, the beds of torrents and rivers.

The interior of Spain is a table-land, with an areaof 93,000 square miles, nearly equal to half of thepeninsula. It dips to the Atlantic from its westernside, where its altitude is about 2500 feet. Thereit is bounded by the Iberian mountains, whiehbegin at the point where the Pyrenees take thename of the Cantabrian chain, and run in a tortuoussouth-easterly direction through all Spain, constitut-ing the western boundary of Valencia and Murcia,and sending many branches through those provincesto the Mediterranean. Its most elevated point isthe Sierra Urbian, 7272 feet high.

Four nearly parallel ranges of mountains originatein this limiting chain, running from N.E. to S.W.diagonally across the peninsula to the Atlantic. Ofthese the high Castilian mountains and the Sierra diToledo cross the table-land; the Sierra Morena, socalled from the dingy colour of its forests of Hermes


oak, on the southern edge; and, lastly, the Sierra Ne-vada, though only a hundred miles long and fiftybroad, the finest range of mountains in Europe afterthe Alps, traverses the plains of Andalusia and Gre-nada. The table-land is monotonous and bare oftrees ; the plains of Old Castile are as naked as thesteppes of Siberia, and uncultivated except along thebanks of the rivers. Corn and wine are producedin abundance on the wide plains of New Castile andEstremadura; other places serve for pasture. Thetable-land becomes more fertile as it descends towardsPortugal, which is altogether more productive thanSpain, though the maritime provinces of the latteron the Mediterranean are luxuriant and beautifulwith a semi-tropical vegetation.

Granite, crystalline strata, and primary fossili-ferous rocks prevail chiefly in the Spanish mountains,and give them their peculiar bold serrated aspect.The tracts between the parallel ranges through whichthe great Spanish rivers flow to the Atlantic appearto have been at one time the basins of lakes.

The mass of the high land is continued throughthe south of France, at a much lower elevation, bychains of hills and table-lands, the most remarkableof which are the Montagnes Noires, and the greatplatform of Auvergne, once the theatre of violentvolcanic action. It continued from the beginningto the middle of the tertiary period, so that there arecraters of various ages and perfect form: some ofthe highest, as the Puy de Dome, 5000 feet high,are trachytic craters of elevation ; Mont Dore, 6200

THE FRENCH AND GERMAN MOUNTAINS. 4 5

feet high, is probably the most elevated. These vol-canic mountains of Auvergne, and the Cevennes,above 6000 feet high, are the most remarkable ofthe French system ; the offsets of the latter reach theright bank of the Rhone and the Jura mountains ofthe Alpine range. In fact, the French mountainsare the link between the more elevated masses ofwestern and eastern Europe.

The eastern and highest part of the European por-tion of the mountain-zone begins to rise above thelow lands about the 52nd parallel of north latitude,ascending by terraces, groups, and chains of moun-tains, through six or seven degrees of latitude, till itreaches its highest point in the great range of theAlps and Balkan. The descent on the south sideof this lofty mass is much more rapid and abrupt, andthe immediate offsets from the Alps shorter; but,taking a very general view, the Apennines and moun-tains of northern Sicily, those of Greece and thesouthern part of Turkey in Europe, with all theislands of the adjacent coasts, are but outlying mem-bers of the general protuberance.

The principal chain of the Hyrcanian mountains,the Sudetes, and the Carpathian mountains, form thenorthern boundary of these high lands: the first,consisting of three parallel ridges, extends from theright bank of the Rhine to the centre of Germany,about 51° or 52° of N. lat., with a mean breadth ofabout a hundred miles, and terminates in the knot ofthe Fichtelberge, covering an area of 9000 squaremiles, on the confines of Bavaria and Bohemia. The

46 THYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.

Sudetes begin on the east of this group, and, after acircuit of three hundred miles round Bohemia, ter-minate at the small elevated plain of the Upper Oder,which connects them with the Carpathian mountains.No part of these limiting ranges attains the height of5000 feet, except the Carpathians, some of whichare very high. They consist of mountain groups,united by elevated plains, rather than of a single chain:the Tatra mountains, bisected by the 20th meridian,is their loftiest point. This range is high also inTransylvania, before it reaches the Danube, whichdivides it from a secondary branch of the Balkan-Spurs decline in undulations from these limitingchains on the great northern plain, and the countryto the south, intervening between them and the Alps,is covered with an intricate network of mountainsand plains of moderate elevation.

The higher Alps, which form the western crest ofthe elevated zone, begin at the Capo della Melle, onthe Gulf of Genoa, and bend round by the west andnorth to Mont Blanc ; then turning E.N.E. they runthrough the Grisons and Tyrol to the Great Glocknerin 40° 7 N. lat. and 12° 43' E. long., where thehigher Alps terminate a course 420 miles long. Allthis chain is lofty ; much of it is above the line ofperpetual congelation, but the most elevated part liesbetween the Col de la Seigne, on the west shoulderof Mont Blanc, and the Simplon. The highestmountains in Europe are comprised within this space,not more than sixty miles long, where Mont Blanc,the highest of all, has an absolute elevation of 15,730

THE ALPS. 47

feet. The central ridge of the higher Alps isjagged with peaks, pyramids, and needles of bareand almost perpendicular rock, rising from fields ofperpetual snow and rivers of ice to an elevation of14,000 feet. Many parallel chains and groups, alikerugged and snowy, press on the principal crest, andsend their flanks far into the lower grounds. Innu-merable secondary branches, hardly lower than themain crest, diverge from it in various directions ; ofthese the chain of the Bernese Alps is the highestand most extensive. It breaks off at St. Gothard, ina line parallel to the principal chain, separates theValais from the canton of Bern, and with its ramifi-cations forms one of the most remarkable groups ofmountain scenery in Europe. Its endless maze ofsharp ridges and bare peaks, mixed with giganticmasses of pure snow fading coldly serene into theblue horizon, present a scene of sublime quiet andrepose, unbroken but by the avalanche or thethunder.

At the Great Glockner, the range of the Alps, hi-therto undivided, splits into two branches, the Noricand Carnic Alps : the latter is the continuation ofthe chief stem. Never rising to the height of perpetualsnow, it separates the Tyrol and Upper Carinthiafrom the Venetian States, and, taking the name of theJulian Alps at Mont Terglou, 9380 feet above thesea, runs east till it joins the eastern Alps or Bal-kan, under the 18th meridian. Offsets from thischain cover all the neighbouring countries.

It is difficult to estimate the width of the Alpine


chain ; that of the higher Alps is about a hundredmiles ; it increases to a hundred and fifty east of theGrisons, and amounts to two hundred between the15th and 16th meridians, but is not more than eightyat its junction with the Balkan.

The Stelvio, 9174 feet above the sea, is thehighest carriage-pass in these mountains. Thatof St. Gothard is the only one which goes directlyover the crest of the Alps. Passes very rarelygo over the summit of a mountain; they generallycross the water-shed, ascending by the valley ofa torrent, and descending by a similar path on theother side.

The frequent occurrence of extensive deep lakesis a peculiar feature in European mountains, rarelyto be met with in the Asiatic system, except in theAltai, and on the elevated plains.

With the exception of the Jura, whose pastoralsummit is about 3000 feet above the sea, there areno elevated table-lands in the Alps ; the tabularform, so eminently characteristic of the Asiatic highlands, begins in the Balkan. The Oriental penin-sula rises by degrees from the Danube to Bosnia andUpper Macedonia, which are some hundred feet.above the sea; and the Balkan extends six hundredmiles along this elevated mass, from the Julian Alpsto Cape Eminek on the Black Sea. It begins by atable-land seventy miles long, traversed by low hills,ending towards Albania and Myritida in a limestonewall from six to seven thousand feet high. Ruggedmountains, all but impassable, succeed to this, in

THE BALKAN—THE APENNINES. 49

which the domes and needles of the Schandach, orancient Scamus, are covered with perpetual snow.Another table-land follows, whose marshy surface isbounded by mural precipices ending at Mount Arbe-lus, 9000 feet high, near the town of Sophia. Therethe Henius, or Balkan properly so called, begins,and runs in parallel ridges, separated by fertile lon-gitudinal valleys, to the Black Sea, dividing theplains between the Lower Danube and the Propontisinto nearly equal parts. The central ridge rises atonce in a wall 4000 feet high, passable in fewplaces ; and where there is no lateral ridge the preci-pices descend at once to the plains.

The Balkan is everywhere rent by terrific fissuresacross the chains and table-lands, so deep and nar-row that daylight is almost excluded. These chasmsafford the safest passes across the range ; the others,along the faces of the precipices, are frightful.

The Mediterranean is the southern boundary ofthe elevated zone of Eastern Europe, whose lastoffsets rise in rocky islands along the coasts. Thecrystalline mountains of Sardinia and Corsica areoutlying members of the Maritime Alps, while shorteroffsets end in the plains of Lombardy, forming themagnificent scenery of the Italian lakes. Even theApennines, whose elevation has given its form tothe peninsula of ItaJy, is but a secondary, on a greaterscale, to the broad central band, as well as the moun-tains and high land in the north of Sicily, whichform the continuation of the Calabrian chain.

The Apennines, beginning at the Maritime Alps,VOL. I. E


enclose the Gulf of Genoa, and run through thecentre of Italy in parallel ranges to the middle ofCalabria, where they split into two branches, one ofwhich goes to Capo de Leuca on the Gulf of Torento,the other to Cape Spartivento in the Straits ofMessina. The whole length is about eight hundredmiles. None of the Apennines come within theline of perpetual snow, though it lies nine monthsin the year on the Gran Sasso d'ltalia, 9521 feethigh in Abruzza Ulteriore.

Offsets from the Julian and Eastern Alps renderDalmatia and Albania perhaps the most rugged tractin Europe; and the Pindus, which forms the water-shed of Greece, diverges from the latter chain, and,running south two hundred miles, separates Albaniafrom Macedonia and Thessaly.

Greece is a country of mountains, and, althoughnone are perpetually covered with snow, it lies ninemonths on several of their summits. The chainsterminate in strongly projecting headlands, whichreach far into the sea, and reappear in the numerousislands and rocks which stud that deeply indentedcoast. The Grecian mountains, like the Balkan,are torn by transverse fractures. The celebratedPass of Thermopylae, the defile of Blatamana, andthe Gulf of Salonica are examples. The Adriatic,the Dardanelles, and the Sea of Marmora limit thesecondaries of the southern part of the Balkan.

The valleys in the Alps are long and narrow; thoseamong the mountains of Turkey in Europe andGreece are mostly caldron-shaped hollows, often

ICE IN THE ALPS. 5 1

enclosed by mural rocks. Many of these cavitiesof great size lie along the foot of the Balkan. In theMorea they are so encompassed by mountains thatthe water has no escape but through the porous soil.They consist of tertiary strata, which had formedthe bottom of lakes. Caldron-shaped valleys occurin most volcanic countries, as Sicily, Italy, andcentral France.

The table-lands which constitute the tops of moun-tains or of mountain-chains are of a different cha-racter from those terraces by which the high landsslope to the low. The former are on a small scalein Europe, and of a forbidding aspect, with the ex-ception of the Jura, which is pastoral; whereas thelatter are almost always habitable and cultivated.The mass of high land in South-Eastern Europeshelves on the north to the great plain of Bavaria, 3000feet high ; Bohemia, which slopes from 1500 to 900,and Hungary, from 4000 above the sea to 300. Thedescent on the south of the Alps is six or seven timesmore rapid, because the distance from the axis of thechain is shorter.

It is scarcely possible to estimate the quantity ofice in the Alps; it is said, however, that, independ-ent of the glaciers in the Grisons, there are 1500square miles of ice in the Alpine range, from eightyto six hundred feet thick. Some glaciers have beenpermanent and stationary in the Alps time imme-morial, while others now occupy ground formerlybearing corn or covered with trees, which the irre-sistible force of the ice has swept away. These ice

E 2


rivers, formed on the snow-clad summits of themountains, fill the hollows and high valleys, hang onthe declivities, or descend by their weight throughthe transverse valleys to the plains, where they arecut short by the increased temperature, and depositthose accumulations of rocks and rubbish, calledmoraines, which had fallen upon them from theheights above. In the Alps the glaciers move atthe rate of from twelve to twenty-five feet annually,and, as in rivers, the motion is most rapid in thecentre. They advance or retreat according to themildness or severity of the season, but they havebeen subject to cycles of unknown duration. Fromthe moraines, as well as the striae engraven on therocks over which they have passed, M. Agassizhas ascertained that the valley of Chamouni was atone time occupied by a glacier that had movedtowards the Col di Balme. A moraine 2000 feetabove the Ehone at St. Maurice shows that at a re-mote period glaciers had covered Switzerland to theheight of 2155 feet above the Lake of Geneva.

Their increase is now limited by various circum-stances—as the mean temperature of the earth, whichis always above the freezing-point in those latitudes;excessive evaporation ; and blasts of hot air, whichoccur at all heights, in the night as well as in theday, from some unknown cause. They are notpeculiar to the Alps, but have been observed also onthe glaciers of the Andes. Besides, the greater thequantity of snow in the higher Alps, the lower is theglacier forced into the plains.

CONSTITUTION OF THE MOUNTAINS. 5 3

Granite no doubt forms the base of the mountainsystem of Eastern Europe, though it more rarelycomes into view than might have been expected.Crystalline schists of various kinds are enormouslydeveloped, and generally form the most elevatedpinnacles of the Alpine crest and its offsets ; but thesecondary fossiliferous strata constitute the chiefmass, and often rise to the highest summits ; indeed,secondary limestones occupy a great portion of thehigh land of Eastern Europe. Calcareous rocksform two great mountain-zones on each side of thecentral chain of the Alps, and rise occasionally toaltitudes of ten or twelve thousand feet. They con-stitute the central range of the Apennines, and fillthe greater part of Sicily. They are extensivelydeveloped in Turkey in Europe, where the plateauof Bosnia with its high lands on the south, part ofMacedonia, and Albania with its islands, are princi-pally composed of them. Tertiary strata, of greatthickness, rest on the flanks of the Alps, and rise insome places to a height of five thousand feet. Zonesof the older Pleiocene period flank the Apennines oneach side, filled with organic remains ; and half ofSicily is covered with the newer Pleiocene strata.

From numerous dislocations in the strata, theAlps appear to have been heaved up by many violentand repeated convulsions, separated by intervals ofrepose, and different parts of the chain have beenraised at different times; for example, the MaritimeAlps and the south-western part of the Jura moun-tains were raised previous to the formation of the


chalk : but the tertiary period appears to have beenthat of the greatest commotions ; for nearly two-thirds of the lands of Europe have risen since thebeginning of that epoch, and those that existedthen acquired additional height, though some sankbelow their original level. During that time theAlps acquired an additional elevation of between twoand three thousand feet; Mont Blanc then reachedits present altitude; the Apennines rose one or twothousand feet higher ; and the Carpathians seem tohave gained an accession of height about the sameperiod. That part of the Alpine chain lying betweenMont Blanc and Vienna is said to have acquired itslast accession of height since the seas were inhabitedby the existing species of animals.

CHAPTER III.

THE HIGH LANDS OF THE GREAT CONTINENT, Continued: THE

CAUCASUS — THE WESTERN ASIATIC TABLE-LAND AND ITS

MOUNTAINS.

T H E Dardanelles and the Sea of Marmora form buta small break in the mighty girdle of the old con-tinent, which again appears in immense table-landspassing through the centre of Asia, of such mag-nitude that they occupy nearly two-fifths of the con-tinent. Here everything is on a much grander scalethan in Europe; the table-lands rise above the meanheight of the European mountains, and the moun-tains themselves that gird and traverse them surpassthose of every other country in altitude. The mostbarren deserts are here to be met with, as well as themost luxuriant productions of animal and vegetablelife. The earliest records of the human race arefound in this cradle of civilization, and monumentsstill remain which show the skill and power of thosenations which have passed away, but whose moralinfluence is still visible in their descendants. Cus-toms, manners, and even prejudices, carry us backto times beyond the record of history, or even oftradition ; while the magnitude with which the na-tural world is here developed evinces the tremendousforces that must have been in action at epochs im-measurably anterior to the existence of man.


The gigantic mass of high land which extends for6000 miles between the Mediterranean and the Pa-cific is 2000 miles broad at its eastern extremity,700 to 1000 in the middle, and somewhat less at itswestern termination. Colossal mountains and ele-vated terraces form the edges of these lofty plains.

Between the 47th and 68th eastern meridians,where the low plains of Hindostan and Buchariapress upon the table-land and reduce its width to700 or 1000 miles, it is divided into two parts by anenormous knot of mountains formed by the meetingof the Hindoo Coosh, the Himalaya, the Thsung-ling, and the transverse ranges of the Beloot Tagh,or Cloudy Mountains: these two parts differ in height,form, and magnitude.

The western portion, which is the table-land ofPersia or plateau of Iran, is oblong, extending fromthe shores of Asia Minor to the Hindoo Coosh andthe Solimaun range, which skirts the right bank ofthe Indus. It occupies an area of 1,700,000 squaremiles, generally about 4000 feet above the sea, andin some places 7000. The oriencal plateau ortable-land of Tibet, much the largest, has an area of7,600,000 square miles, and a mean altitude of14,000 feet, and in some parts of Tibet an absolutealtitude of 17,000 feet.

As the table-lands extend from S.W. to N.E., soalso do the principal mountain-chains, as well thosewhich bound the high lands as those which traversethem, with the exception of the Beloot Tagh, orBolor, and the Solimaun chains, which run from

THE CAUCASUS. 57

north to south. The first is the western limit of theoriental plateau, the other the boundary of the table-land of Persia.

The lofty range of the Caucasus, which extends700 miles between the Black and Caspian Seas, is anoutlying member of the Asiatic high lands. Offsetsdiverge like ribs from each side of the central crest,which penetrate the Russian steppes on one hand,and on the other cross the plains of Kara, or valleyof the Kour and Rioni, and unite the Caucasus tothe table-land. Some parts of these mountains aremore than 15,000 feet high ; the Elbrouz, on thewestern border of Georgia, is 17,796 feet. Thecentral part of the chain is full of glaciers, and thelimit of perpetual snow is at the altitude of 11,000feet, which is higher than in any other chain, exceptthe Himalaya.

Anatolia, the most western part of the table-landof Iran, 3000 feet above the sea, is traversed by shortchains and broken groups of mountains, separated byfertile valleys which sink rapidly towards the archi-pelago and end in promontories and islands along theshores of Asia Minor, which is a country aboundingin vast luxuriant but solitary plains, watered by broadrivers. Single mountains of volcanic formation areconspicuous objects on the table-land of Anatolia,which is rich in pasture, though much of the soil issaline and covered with lakes and marshes. A triplerange of limestone mountains, 6000 or 7000 feet high,divided by narrow but beautiful valleys, is the limit ofthe Anatolian table-land along the shores of the Black


Sea. They are covered with forests to the height of4500 feet, and broken by wooded glens, having anarrow coast, except near Trebizond, where it isbroad and picturesque. The high land is bounded onthe south by the serrated snowy range of the Taurus,which, beginning in Rhodes, Cos, and other islands inthe Mediterranean, fills the south-western parts ofAsia Minor with ramifications, and, after followingthe sinuosities of the iron-bound coast of Karamaniain a single lofty range, extends at Samisat, wherethe Euphrates has pierced a way through this stonygirdle.

About the 50th meridian the table-land is com-pressed to nearly half its width, and there the loftymountainous regions of Armenia, Kourdistan, andAzerbijan tower higher and higher between theBlack Sea, the Caspian, and the Gulf of Alexan-dretta in the Mediterranean. Here the cold treelessplains of Armenia, the earliest abode of man, 7000feet above the sea, bear no traces of the garden ofEden ; but Mount Ararat, on which the ark is said tohave rested, stands a solitary majestic volcanic cone17,260 feet above the sea, shrouded in perpetualsnow. Though high and cold, the soil of Armeniais better than that of Anatolia, and is better cul-tivated. It shelves on the north in luxuriant andbeautiful declivities to the low and undulating valleyof Kara, south of the Caucasus; and on the otherhand, the broad and lofty belt of the KourdistanMountains, rising abruptly in many parallel rangesfrom the plains of Mesopotamia, form its southern

PERSIAN MOUNTAINS. 59

limit, and spread their ramifications wide over itssurface. They are rent by deep ravines, and inmany places are so rugged that communication be-tween the villages is always difficult, and in winterimpracticable from the depth of snow. The line ofperpetual congelation is decided and even alongtheir summit; their flanks are wooded, and the valleyspopulous and fertile.

A thousand square miles of Kourdistan is occupiedby the brackish lake Yan, which is seldom frozen,though 5467 feet above the sea and surrounded bylofty mountains.

The Persian mountains, of which the Elbrouz isthe principal chain, extend along the northern brinkof the plateau, from Armenia, almost parallel to thesliores of the Caspian Sea, maintaining a considerableelevation up to the volcanic mountain Demavend,near Tehran, their culminating point, 14,600 feethigh, which, though 90 miles inland, is a land-mark to sailors on the Caspian. Elevated offsets ofthese mountains cover the volcanic table-land ofAzerbijan, the fire country of Zoroaster, and one ofthe best provinces in Persia ; there the Koh Savalanelevates its volcanic cone 12,000 feet. Beautifulplains, pure streams, and peaceful glades, interspersedwith villages, lie among the mountains, and the Valeof Khosran Shah, a picture of sylvan beauty, is ce-lebrated as one of the five paradises of Persianpoetry. The vegetation at the foot of these moun-tains on the shores of the Caspian has all the exuber-ance of a tropical jungle. The Elbrouz loses its


height to the east of Demavend, and then joins themountains of Khorasan and the Parapamisan range,which appear to be chains of mountains when viewedfrom the low plains of Khorasan and Balkh, but onthe table-land of Persia they merely form a broadhilly country of rich soil till they join the HindooCoosh.

The table-land of Iran is bounded, for a thousandmiles along the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean, by amountainous belt of from three to seven parallelranges, having an average width of 200 miles, andextending from the extremity of the KourdistanMountains to the mouth of the Indus. The LasistanMountains, which form the northern part of thisbelt, and bound the vast level plain of the Tigris,rise from it in a succession of high table-lands di-vided by very rugged mountains, the last ridge ofwhich, mostly covered with snow, abuts on the table-land of Persia. Oaks clothe their flanks ; the valleysare of generous soil, verdant and cultivated ; andmany rivers flow through them to swell the streamof the Tigris. Insulated hill forts, from 2000 to5000 feet high, occur in this country, with flat cul-tivated tops some miles in extent, accessible only byladders or holes cut in their precipitous sides. Thesecountries are full of ancient inscriptions and remainsof antiquity. The moisture decreases more andmore south from Shiraz, and then the parallel ridges,repulsive in aspect and difficult to pass, are separatedby arid longitudinal valleys, which ascend like stepsfrom the narrow shores of the Persian Gulf to the

BARRENNESS OF PERSIAN SOIL. 61

table-land. The coasts of the gulf are burning-hotsandy solitudes, so completely barren that the countryfrom Bassora to the Indus, a distance of 1200 miles,is a sterile waste. In the few favoured spots on theterraces where water occurs there is vegetation, andthe beauty of these valleys is enhanced by surround-ing sterility.

With the exception of Mazenderan, and the otherprovinces on the Caspian and in_ the Parapamisanrange, Persia is arid, possessing few perennial springs,and not one great river; in fact, three-tenths of thecountry is desert, and the table-land is nearly a widescene of desolation. A great salt desert occupies27,000 square miles between Irak and Khorasan, ofwhich the soil is stiff clay covered with efflorescenceof common salt and nitre, often an inch thick, variedonly by a few saline plants and patches of verdure inthe hollows. This dreary waste joins the large sandyand equally dreary desert of Kerman. Kelat, thecapital of Belochistan, is 7000 feet above the levelof the sea, round which there is cultivation, but thegreater part of that country is a lifeless plain, overwhich the brick-red sand is drifted by the northwind into ridges like the waves of the sea, oftentwelve feet high, without a vestige of vegetation.The blast of the desert, whose hot and pestilentialbreath is fatal to man and animals, renders thesedismal sands impassable at certain seasons.

Barren lands or bleak downs prevail at the footof the Lukee and Solimaun ranges of bare porphyryand sandstone, which skirt the eastern edge of the


table-land and dip to the plains of the Indus. InAfghanistan there is cultivation chiefly on the banksof the streams that flow into Lake Zorah, but vitalityreturns towards the north-east. The plains andA alleys among the offsets from the Hindoo Coosh areof surpassing loveliness, and combine the richestpeaceful beauty with the majesty of the snow-cappedmountains.

CHAPTER IV.

THE HIGH LANDS OF THE GREAT CONTINENT, Continued:—THE

ORIENTAL TABLE-LAND AND ITS MOUNTAINS.

THE oriental plateau, or table-land of Tibet, is anirregular four-sided mass stretching from S.W. toN.E., enclosed and traversed by the highest moun-tains in the world. It is separated from the table-land of Persia by the Hindoo Coosh, a branch of theHimalaya, which occupies the terrestrial isthmus be-tween the low lands of Hindostan and Bucharia.

The cold dreary plateau of Tibet is separated onthe south from the glowing luxuriant plains of Hin-dostan by the Himalaya, which extends 2800 milesfrom the western extremity of the Hindoo Coosh inCabulistan to the Gulf of Tonkin in China. Thechain of the Alta"i,to the north, 4500 miles long, dividesthe table-land from the deserts of Asiatic Siberia,and, stretching to the sea at Okhotzk under variousnames, it bends to the N.N.E., and terminates atBehring's Straits, the utmost extremity of Asia.The table-land terminates in the east, partly in thelong Chinese chain of the Khing-Khan and InshanMountains, which stretch from the Altai range to thegreat bend in the Yellow River in China, and farthersouth by the nameless and almost unknown magnifi-cent mountains in the western provinces of the Chi-nese empire. On the west the table-land has its


limits in the Beloot Tagh, or Cloudy Mountains,the Tartash Tagh of the natives, a transverse range,which leaves the Hindoo Coosh nearly at a right angleabout the 72nd degree of E. longitude, and, pursuinga northerly direction, is supposed to unite the latterchain to that of the Altai; its offsets, at least, extendwidely in that direction. I t forms magnificent moun-tain-knots with the diagonal chains of the table-land,and is the water-shed between Independent and Chi-nese Tourkistan, or Tartary. I t descends in a suc-cession of tiers or terraces through the countries ofBokhara and Balkh to the deep cavity in which theCaspian Sea and the Sea of Azoff lie, and forms, withthe Paralasa, the Solimaun range, and the Ural, asingular exception to the general parallelism ofAsiatic mountains. Two narrow difficult passes leadover the Beloot Tagh from the low plains of Bu-charia and Independent Tourkistan to Kashgar andYarkand, on the table-land in Chinese Tartary.

The table-land itself is crossed diagonally fromwest to east by two great chains of mountains. TheKuen-leun, or Chinese range, begins about 35° 30'N. lat. at the mountain-knot formed by the HindooCoosh and Himalaya, and, running eastward, it ter-minates south of the Gulf of Petcheli, and covers agreat part of the western provinces of China with itsbranches. The Thian-shan, or Celestial Mountains,lie more to the north ; they begin at the BelootTagh, and, running along the 42nd parallel, sink tothe desert of the Great Gobi, about the centre of theplateau, but, rising again, they end in various branches

THE HIMALAYA. 65

in China. The latter chain is exceedingly volcanic,and, though so far inland, pours forth lava, and ex-hibits all the other phenomena of volcanic districts.

Tibet is enclosed between the Himalaya and theKuen-leun; Tungut, or Chinese Tartary, lies be-tween the latter chain and the Celestial Mountains,and Zungary, or Mongolia, between the Celestialrange and the Altai. The Himalaya and Altairanges diverge in their easterly courses so that thetable-land, which is only from 700 to 1000 mileswide at its western extremity, is 2000 between theChinese province of Yunnan and the country of theMantshu Tonguses.

Of all these vast chains of mountains the Hi-malaya, and its principal branch the Hindoo Coosh,are best known ; though even of these a great parthas never been explored, on account of their enor-mous height and the depth of snow, which make itimpossible to approach the central ridge, except in avery few places.

The range consists of three parts : the HindooCoosh, or Indian Caucasus, which extends from theParapamisan range in Afghanistan to Cashmere;the Himalaya, or Imaus of the ancients, whichstretches from the valley of Cashmere to the sourcesof the Brahmapootra ; and, lastly, the mountains ofBhotan and Assam,—the three making one magnifi-cent unbroken chain.

The Hindoo Coosh, which has its name from amountain of great height north of the city of Cabul,is very broad to the west, extending over many de-

VOL. I . F


grees of latitude, and, together with the offsets of theBeloot Tagh, fills the countries of Kafferistan, Koon-dez, and Budaksha. From the plains to the southit seems to consist of four distinct ranges runningone above another, the last of which abuts on thetable-land, and is so high that its snowy summits arevisible at the distance of 150 miles. One of theridges runs along the table-land parallel to the prin-cipal chain at the distance of 200 miles, known asthe Ice Mountains, or Kara-Korum of the natives.Another ridge of stupendous height encloses thebeautiful valley of Cashmere, to the east of whichthe chain takes the name of Himalaya, " the dwell-ing of snow," and extends 300 miles to the sourcesof the Brahmapootra, varying in breadth from 250to 350 miles, and occupying an area of 600,000square miles.

The general structure of the Himalaya is veryregular; the first range of hills that rise above theplains of Hindostan is alluvial, north of which liesthe Tariyani, a tract from 10 to 30 miles wide,1000 feet above the sea, covered with dense, pesti-lential jungle, and extending along the foot of therange. North of this region are rocky ridges, 5000or 6000 feet high. Between these and the higherranges lie the peaceful and well-cultivated valleysof Nepaul, Bhotan, and Assam, of inexhaustiblefertility, interspersed with picturesque and populoustowns and villages. Though separated by mountain-groups, they form the principal terrace of the Hi-malaya, between the Sutlej and the Brahmapootra.

THE HIMALAYA. 67

Behind these are mountains from 10,000 to 12,000feet high, flanked by magnificent forests, and, lastly,the snowy ranges rise in succession to the table-land.

The principal and most elevated chains are cut bynarrow, gloomy ravines and transverse dusky gorges,through which the torrents of melted snow rush toswell the rivers of Hindostan. The character of thevalleys becomes softer in the lower regions, till atlast the luxuriance of vegetation and beauty cannotbe surpassed. Transverse valleys, however, are morefrequent in the Hindoo Coosh than in the Himalaya,where they consist chiefly of such chasms filled withwreck as the tributaries of the Indus and Ganges havemade in bursting through the chain.

The mean height of the Himalaya is stupendous,certainly not less than from 16,000 to 20,000 feet,though the peaks exceeding that elevation are notto be numbered, especially at the sources of theSutlej ; indeed, from that river to the Kalee thechain exhibits an endless succession of the loftiestmountains on earth : forty of them surpass the heightof Chimborazo, the highest but one of the Andes, andmany reach the height of 25,000 feet at least. Sorugged is this part of the magnificent chain, thatthe military parade at Sabathoo, half a mile long,and a quarter of a mile broad, is said to be the onlylevel ground between it and the Tartar frontier onthe north, or the valley of Nepaul to the east.Towards the fruitful valleys of Nepaul and Bhotanthe Himalaya is equally lofty, some of the moun-

F 2


tains being from 25,000 to 28,000 feet high, butit is narrower, and the descent to the plains exces*sively rapid, especially in the territory of Bhotan,where the dip from the table-land is more than10,000 feet in ten miles. The valleys are crevicesso deep and narrow, and the mountains that hang overthem in menacing cliffs are so lofty, that these abyssesare shrouded in perpetual gloom, except when the raysof a vertical sun penetrate their depths. From thesteepness of the descent the rivers shoot down withthe swiftness of an arrow, filling the caverns withfoam and the air with mist. At the very base ofthis wild region lies the elevated and peaceful valleyof Bhotan, vividly green and shaded by magnificentforests. Another rapid descent of 10C0 feet leadsto the plain of the Ganges.

The Himalaya still maintains great height alongthe north of Assam, and at the sources of theBrahmapootra the parent stem and its branches ex-tend in breadth over two degrees of latitude, form-ing a vast mountain knot, with summits 20,000 feethigh. Beyond this point nothing certain is knownof the range, but it or some of its branches are sup-posed to cross the southern provinces of the Chineseempire, and to end in the volcanic island of Formosa,Little more is known of the northern side of themountains than that the passes are about 5000 feetabove the plains of Tibet.

The passes over the Hindoo Coosh, though not thehighest, are very formidable; there are six fromCabul to the plains of Tuxkistan, and so deep and so

THE HIMALAYA. 69

mtiuch enclosed are the defiles, that Sir AlexanderBurnes never could obtain an observation of thepole star in the whole journey from Banneean tillwithin 30 miles of Turkistan.

Most of the passes over the Himalaya are butlittle lower than the top of Mont Blanc; manyare higher, especially near the Sutlej, where theyare from 18,000 to 19,000 feet high, and thatnorth-east of Khoonawur is 20,000 feet above thelevel of the sea, the highest that has been at-tempted. All are terrific, and the fatigue and suf-fering from the rarity of the air in the last 500feet is not to be described. Animals are as muchdistressed as human beings, and many die. Thou-sands of birds perish from the violence of thewind, the drifting snow is often fatal to travellers^and violent thunder-storms add to the horror of thejourney. The Niti Pass, by which Mr. Moorcroftascended to the sacred lake of Manasa in Tibet, istremendous; he and his guide had not only to walkbarefooted from the risk of slipping, but they wereobliged to creep along the most frightful chasms,holding by twigs and tufts of grass, and sometimesthey crossed deep and awful crevices on a branch ofa tree, or loose stones thrown across; yet these arethe thoroughfares for commerce in the Himalaya,never repaired nor susceptible of improvement fromthe frequent landslips and torrents.

The loftiest peaks being bare of snow gives greatvariety of colour and beauty to the scenery, which inthese passes is at all times magnificent. During the


day the stupendous size of the mountains, their inter-minable extent, the variety and sharpness of theirforms, and, above all, the tender clearness of theirdistant outline melting into the pale blue sky, con-trasted with the deep azure above, is described as ascene of wild and wonderful beauty. At midnight,when myriads of stars sparkle in the black sky, andthe pure blue of the mountains looks deeper stillbelow the pale white gleam of the earth and snow-light, the effect is of unparalleled solemnity, and nolanguage can describe the splendour of the sunbeamsat daybreak streaming between the high peaks, andthrowing their gigantic shadows on the mountainsbelow. There, far above the habitation of man, noliving thing exists; no sound is heard ; the veryecho of the traveller's footsteps startles him in theawful solitude and silence that reigns in these augustdwellings of everlasting snow.

Nature has in mercy mitigated the intense rigourof the cold in these high lands in a degree un-exampled in other mountainous regions. The cli-mate is mild, the valleys are verdant and inhabited,corn and fruit ripen at elevations which in othercountries, even under the equator, would be buriedin permanent snow.

It is also a peculiarity in these mountains, thatthe higher the range the higher likewise is the limitof snow and vegetation. On the southern slopes ofthe first range Mr. Gerard found cultivation10,000 feet above the sea; in the valleys of thesecond range he met with shepherds feeding their

THE HIMALAYA. 7 1

flocks and dwelling at the height of 14,000 feet;and on the table-land of Tibet, the highest habitationof man in the Old World, the ground is cultivatedat the altitude of 13,600 feet, which is only 2130 feetlower than the summit of Mont Blanc. In ChineseTartary good crops of wheat are raised 16,000 feetabove the sea; the vine and other fruits thrive inthe valleys of these high plains. The temperatureof the earth probably has some influence on thevegetation : as many hot springs exist in the Hima-laya at great heights, there must be a source of heatbelow these mountains which in some places comesnear the surface, and possibly may be connected withthe volcanic fires in the central chains of the table-land. Hot springs abound in the valley of Jumnotra ;and as it is well known that many plants thrive invery cold air if their roots are well protected, itmay be the cause of pine-trees flourishing in thatvalley nearly 13,000 feet above the sea, and of thesplendid forests of the deodar, a pine that grows togigantic size even in the snow.

According lo Captain and Mr. Gerard the line ofperpetual congelation is at an elevation of only12,800 feet on the southern slopes of the Himalaya,while on the northern side it is 15,600 feet abovethe sea—a remarkable circumstance, which is ascribedto the fogs that rise from the plains of Hindostanon one hand, and the serenity that prevails on theother: something may be due to radiation from thehigh northern plains, which, being so near, have


much greater effect on the temperature than thewarmer but more distant plains on the south.

Four vast secondary chains leave the Himalaya atthe great mountain-knot at the sources of the Brah-mapootra, in the Chinese province of Yunnan, andextend through the Indo-Chinese peninsula and thecountries east of the Ganges, in a southern but di-:verging direction, leaving large and fertile king-doms between them. The Birmano-Siamese chainis the most extensive, reaching to the extremity ofthe Malayan peninsula at Cape Romania, the mostsoutherly point of Asia; it may be traced throughthe island of Sumatra parallel to the coast, and alsoin the islands of Banka and Beliton, where it ends.

Another range, called the Laos-Siamese chain,forms the eastern boundary of the kingdom of Siam,and the Annamatic chain, from the same origin,separates the empire of Annain from Tonquin andCochin China.

These slightly diverging lines of mountains yieldgold, silver, tin, of the best quality, in great plenty,almost on the surface, and precious stones, as rubiesand sapphires. Mountains in low latitudes have no-thing of the severe character of those in less favouredclimes. Magnificent forests reach their summit;spices, dyes of brilliant tints, medicinal and odori-ferous plants clothe these declivities ; and in the lowgrounds the fruits of India and China grow in per-fection in a soil which yields three crops of grain inthe year.

THE ALTAI. 73

The crest of the Himalaya is of stratified crystal-line rocks, especially gneiss, with large graniticveins, and beds of quartz of huge magnitude. Thezone, between 15,000 and 18,000 feet above thelevel of the sea, is of silurian strata, below whichsandstone prevails: granite is most frequent atthe base, and probably forms the foundation of thechain. Strata of comparatively modern date occurat great elevations. These sedimentary formations,prevailing also on the acclivities of the Alps andApennines, show that the epochs of elevation inparts of the earth widely remote from one another,if not simultaneous, were at least not very different.There can be no doubt that very great geologicalchanges have taken place at a comparatively recentperiod in the Himalaya, and through an extensivepart of the Asiatic continent.

The Altai mountains, which form the northernmargin of the table-land, are unconnected with theUral chain: they are separated from it by 400 milesof a low marshy country, part of the steppe of theKirghiz, and by the Dalai mountains, a low rangenever above 2000 feet high, which runs between the64th meridian and the left bank of the Irtysh. TheAltai chain begins on the right bank of that riverat the north-west angle of the table-land, and ex-tends in a serpentine line to the Pacific, south ofthe Gulf of Okhotzk, dividing the high lands ofTartary and China from the wastes of Asiatic Siberia.Under the name of the Aldan Mountains it skirts thenorth-west side of the Gulf of Okhotzk, and then


stretches to Behring's Straits, its length being 4500miles. The breadth of this chain varies from 400 to1000 miles, but towards the 105th meridian it is con-tracted to about 150, by a projection of the desert ofthe Great Gobi. Its height bears no proportion to itslength and breadth. Indeed the Little Altai', the onlypart of the chain properly so called lying between theIrtysh and the 86th degree of east longitude, can onlybe regarded as a succession of terraces of a swellingoutline, descending by steps from the table-land, andending in promontories on the Siberian plains.There are numerous large lakes on these terracesand on the mountain valleys, as in the mountain sys-tems of Europe. The general form of this part ofthe chain is monotonous from the prevalence ofstraight lines and smooth rounded outlines. Longridges with flattened summits, or small table-lands,not more than 6000 feet high, is their usual struc-ture, rarely attaining the line of perennial congela-tion : snow however is permanent on the Korgontable-land, 9900 feet above the sea, supposed to bethe culminating point of this part of the chain.These table-lands bear a strong resemblance to thosein the Scandinavian mountains in baldness and ste-rility, but their flanks are clothed with forests,verdant meadows, and pastoral valleys.

East of the 86th meridian this region of low moun-tains splits into three branches, enclosing longitudinalvalleys for 450 miles. The central chain, called theTongnou Oola, may be regarded as the principalcontinuation of the Alta'i: it lies nearly along the

THE ALTAI. 75

50th parallel of latitude, but, bending northwards,passes between the lakes Kossagol and Baikal, underthe name of the Sayansk Mountains. The graniterange of the Baikal, properly so called, meets theSayansk chain nearly at right angles, and unites it withthe mountains of the Upper Angara. At the pointwhere the axes of the Baikal and Sayansk chainscross, the mountains are highest, and there only theAltai assumes the form of a regular chain. Theprincipal part of the Baikal group is 500 miles long,from 10 to 60 wide, high and snow-capped, but with-out glaciers. It flanks Lake Baikal on the north,the largest of Alpine lakes, so imbedded in a knotof mountains, partly granitic, partly volcanic, thatrocks and pillars of granite rise from its bed. Themountains south of the lake are but the face of thetable-land ; a traveller ascending them finds himselfat once in the desert of Gobi, which stretches inunbroken sadness to the Great Wall of China.

The Daouria Mountains, a volcanic portion of theAltai, which borders the table-land on the north-east,follow the Baikal chain; and farther east, at thesources of the Aldan, the Altai range takes the nameof the Yablonnoi Khrebet, and stretches south ofthe Gulf of Okhotzk to the coast of the Pacific, op-posite to the island of Tarakai; while another part,1000 miles broad, fills the space between the Gulfof Okhotzk and the river Lena, and then, bending tothe north-east, ends in the peninsula of Kamt-schatka.


A great portion of the Altai chain is unknown toEuropeans ; the innumerable branches that penetratethe Chinese empire are completely so: those belong-ing to Russia abound in a great variety of preciousand rare metals and minerals—silver, copper, andiron. In the Yablonnoi range and other parts thereare whole mountains of porphyry, with red andgreen jasper ; coal is also found ; and in a branch ofthe Altai, between the rivers Obi and Yenissei,there are mines of coal which were set on fire bylightning, and have continued to burn more than acentury. The Siberian mountains far surpass theAndes in the richness of their gold-mines. Theeastern flank of the Ural chain, and some of thenorthern spurs of the Altai, have furnished an im-mense quantity, but a region as large as France haslately been discovered in Siberia covered with therichest gold alluvium, lying above rocks filled withthat precious metal. The mines of the Ural andAltai are in metamorphic schists adjacent to thegreenstones, syenites, and serpentines that havecaused their change; and as the same formation pre-vails throughout the greater part of the Altai andAldan chains almost to Kamtschatka, there is everyreason to believe that the whole of that vast regionis auriferous: besides, as many of the northern offsetsof the Altai are particularly rich, it may be con-cluded that the southern branches in the Chineseempire are equally so. Thus all southern Siberiaand Chinese Tartary form an auriferous district pro-

THE ALTAI. 77

bably greater than all Europe, which extends evento our dominions in Hindostan, where the gold form-ations are unexplored.

The sedimentary deposits in this extensive moun-tain range are more ancient than the granite, syenite,and porphyries; consequently these igneous rockshave not here formed part of the original crust ofthe globe. Rocks of the Paleozoic series occupythe greater part of the Altai, and probably there arenone more modern. There are no volcanic rocks,ancient or modern, west of the Yenesei, but theyabound to the east of that river, even to Kamtschatka,which is full of them.

The physical characters and the fossil remains ofthis extensive mountain system have little relationwith the geological formations of Europe and Ame-rica. Eastern Siberia seems even to form an insu-lated district by itself, and that part between thetown of Yakoutzk and the mouth of the Lena ap-pears to have been raised at a later period than thepart of Siberia stretching westward to the SayanokMountains: moreover the elevation of the LittleAltai was probably contemporaneous with that of theUral Mountains.

Little more is known of the eastern boundary ofthe table-land of Tibet than that between the sourcesof the Brahmapootra and the Altai chain nearly amillion of square miles of the Chinese empire arecovered with mountains, which begin under the 98thmeridian at the edge of the table-land, and descend tothe 112th degree of east longitude in southern China,


and to the 114th degree in the north. The easternboundary of this mountainous region is said to bethe chains of the In-Shan and Khing-Khan Oolas.The former begins at the southern extremity of Tar-tary, near the Yellow River, and maintains a verytortuous course to the snow-clad mountains ofPetsha, 15,000 feet high. I t then goes north, underthe name of the Khing-Khan Oola, in a serratedgranitic chain, separating the table-land of Mongoliafrom the country of the Manchoux, and joins theYablonnoi branch of the Altai at right angles aboutthe 55th degree of north latitude.

The table-land of Tibet is only 4000 feet abovethe sea towards the north, but it rises in LittleTibet to between 11,000 and 12,000 feet. TheKuen-luen, the most southerly of the two diagonalmountain-chains that cross the table-land, begins atthe Hindoo Coosh, in latitude 35° 30', and extendseastward in two branches, which again unite in theK'han of eastern Tibet, nearly in the centre of thetable-land, where they form an elevated mountainplain round the Lake of Koko-Nor, from whencethose immense mountain-ranges diverge whichrender the south-western provinces of China the mostelevated region on earth. The country of Tibetlying between the Himalaya and the Kuen-luenconsists of rocky mountainous ridges, extending fromN.W. to S.E., separated by long valleys, in whichflow the upper courses of the Brahmapootra, Sutlej,and Indus. According to Mr. Moorcroft, the sacredlake Manasa, in Great Tibet, and the surrounding

TIBET. 79

country, is 17,000 feet above the sea, which is 1270feet higher than Mont Blanc. In this elevatedregion the sheltered valleys and the borders of thestreams alone are available for agriculture; and asthe summer sun is powerful, wheat and barley grow,and many of the fruits of southern Europe ripen.The city of H'Lassa, in eastern Tibet, the residenceof the Grand Lama, is surrounded by vineyards, andis called by the Chinese the " Realm of Pleasure."There are no trees in this country, and the groundin cultivation bears a small proportion to the grassysteppes, which extend in endless monotony, grazedby thousands of the shawl-wool goats, sheep, andcattle. There are many lakes in the table-land;some in Ladok contain borax, a salt very useful inthe arts, found only here and at Corbali in Tuscany,and the Lipari islands.

In summer the sun is powerful at midday, the airis of the purest transparency, and the azure of thesky so deep that it seems black as in the darkestnight. The rising moon does not enlighten theatmosphere, no warning radiance announces her ap-proach, till her limb touches the horizon, and thestars shine with the distinctness and brilliancy ofsuns. In southern Tibet the verdure is confined tofavoured spots, the bleak mountains and high plainsare sternly gloomy—a scene of barrenness not to beconceived. Solitude reigns in these dreary wastes,where there is not a tree nor even a shrub to be seenof more than a few inches high. The scanty short-


lived verdure vanishes in October, the country looksas if fire had passed over it, and cutting dry windsblow with irresistible fury, howling- in the baremountains, whirling the snow through the air, andfreezing to death the unfortunate traveller benightedin their defiles.

Yarkand and Khotan, provinces of Chinese Tar-tary, which lie beyond the two diagonal chains, areless elevated and more fertile than Tibet. They arewatered by five rivers, and contain several largecities ; Yarkand, the most considerable of these, isthe emporium of commerce between Tibet, Turkis-tan, China, and Russia. Gold, rubies, silk, and otherproductions are exported.

The Tartar range of the Thian-Shan is very high;the Bogda Oola, or Holy Mountain, near Lake Lop,its highest point, is always covered with snow ; and ithas two active volcanoes, one on each side—a solitaryinstance of volcanic vents so far from the sea. Thisrange runs along the 42nd parallel of north latitude,forming at its western extremity a mountain-knotwith the Beloot Tagh, in the centre of which lies thesmall table-land of Pamere, 15,600 feet high, calledby the natives the " Roof of the World." Its re-markable elevation was first observed by the enter-prising Venetian traveller, Marco Paolo, six centu-ries ago. The Oxus originates in a glacier of thePooshtee Khur, a peak of the Beloot Tagh, near theplain of Pamere ; and the lake Sir-i-Kol is here thesource of the Yarkand, and the Kokan also rises

DESERT OF THE GREAT GOBI. 81

from this plain, which is intensely cold in winter,and in summer is alive with flocks of sheep andgoats.

Zungary, or Mongolia, the country between theThian-Shan and the Altai, is hardly known furtherthan that its grassy steppes, intersected by manylakes and offsets from the Altai, are the pasture-grounds of the wandering Kirghis.

The remarkable feature of the table-land is thedesert of the Great Gobi, which occupies an area of300,000 square miles in its eastern extremity, inter-rupted only by a few spots of pasture and low bushes.Wide tracts are flat and covered with small stonesor sand, and at a great distance from one anotherthere are low hills, destitute of wood and water; itsgeneral elevation is about 4000 feet above the sea,but it is intersected from west to east by a depressedvalley aptly named Shamo, or the " Sea of Sand,"which is also mixed with salt. West from it lies theHan-Hai, the " Dry Sea," a barren plain of shiftingsand blown into high ridges. Here, as in all deserts,the summer sun is scorching, the winter's cold into-lerable. All the plains of Mongolia are intenselycold, because the hills to the north are too low toscreen them from the polar blast, and, being higherthan the Siberian deserts, they are bitterly cold ; nomonth in the year is free from frost and snow, yet itis not deep enough to prevent cattle from findingpasture. Sandy deserts like that of the Great Gobioccupy much of the country south of the Chinesebranches of the Altai.

VOL. I. G


Such is the stupendous zone of high land thatgirds the old continent throughout its whole length.In the extensive plains on each side of it severalindependent mountain systems rise, though muchinferior to it in extent and height.

CHAPTER V.

SECONDARY MOUNTAIN SYSTEMS OF THE GREAT CONTINENT—

THAT OF SCANDINAVIA GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND

THE URAL MOUNTAINS—THE GREAT NORTHERN PLAIN.

THE great northern plain is broken by two massesof high land, in every respect inferior to thosedescribed: they are the Scandinavian system andthe Ural Mountains, the arbitrary limit betweenEurope and Asia.

The range of primary mountains which has givenits form to the Scandinavian peninsula begins atCape Lindesnaes, the most southerly point of Nor-way, and, after running along its western coast 1000miles in a north-easterly direction, ends at CapeNord Kyn on the Polar Ocean, the extremity ofEurope. The highest elevation of this chain is notmore than 8412 feet. It has been compared to agreat wave or billow, rising gradually from the east,which, after having formed a crest, falls perpen-dicularly into the sea in the west. There are 3696square miles of this peninsula above the line of per-petual snow.

The southern portion of the chain consists ofridges following the general direction of the range,150 miles broad. At the distance of 360 milesfrom Cape Lindesnaes the mountains form a single

G 2


elevated mass, terminated by a table-land, whichmaintains an altitude of 4500 feet for 100 miles.I t slopes towards the east, but plunges at oncein high precipices into a deep sea on the west.

The surface is barren, marshy, and bristled withpeaks ; besides, an area of 600 square leagues isoccupied by the Snae Braen, the greatest mass ofperpetual snow and glaciers on the continent ofEurope. A prominent cluster of mountains follows,from whence a single chain, 25 miles broad, main-tains an uninterrupted line to the island of Megaree,where it terminates in North Cape, a huge barrenrock perpetually lashed by the surge of the PolarOcean. Offsets from these mountains cover Fin-land and the low rocky table-land of Lapland : thevalleys and countries along the eastern side of thechain abound in forests and Alpine lakes.

The iron-bound coast of Norway is a continuedseries of rocky islands, capes, promontories, and pre-cipitous cliffs, rent into chasms which penetratemiles into the heart of the mountains. These chasms,or fiords, are either partly or entirely filled by armsof the sea; in the former case the shores are fertileand inhabited. Fiords are not peculiar to the coastof Norway : they are even more extensive in Green-land and Iceland, and of a more stern character,overhung by snow-clad rocks and glaciers.

As the Scandinavian mountains, those of Feroe,Britain, Ireland, and the north-eastern parts of Ice-land have a similar character, and follow the samegeneral directions, they must have been elevated by

MOUNTAINS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 85

forces acting in parallel lines, and therefore may beregarded as belonging to the same system.

The Feroe islands, due west from Norway, riseat once in a table-land 2000 feet high, bounded byprecipitous cliffs, which dip into the ocean. Someparts of these islands are gradually sinking belowtheir former level; indeed there seems to be an ex-traordinary flexibility in the crust of the earth inthese high northern latitudes: it is bending belowits former level in south Sweden, Feroe, and thewest coast of Greenland, or in a zone between the55th and 62nd or 63rd parallels, while the coast ofNorway is rising at the rate of four feet in a hundredyears from Solvitsberg northward to Lapland, wherethe elevation is greatest.

The rocky islands of Zetland and those of Orkneyform part of the mountain system of Scotland : theOrkney islands have evidently been separated from themainland by the Pentland Firth, where the currentsrun with prodigious violence. The north-westernpart of Scotland is a table-land from 1000 to 2000feet high, which ends abruptly in the sea, coveredwith heath, peat-mosses, and pasture. The generaldirection of the Scottish mountains, like those ofScandinavia, is from north-east to south-west, dividedby a long line of lakes in the same direction, ex-tending from the Moray Firth completely acrossthe island to south of the island of Mull. Lakes ofthe most picturesque beauty abound among theScottish mountains. The Grampian hills, withtheir offsets and some low ranges, fill the greater


part of Scotland north of the Clyde and Forth.Ben Nevis, only 4374 feet above the sea, is thehighest hill in the British islands.

The east coast of Scotland is generally bleak,though in many parts it is extremely fertile, andmay be cited as a model of good cultivation; andthe midland and southern counties are not inferioreither in the quality of the soil or the excellence ofthe husbandry. To the west the country is wildlypicturesque ; the coast of the Atlantic, penetrated bythe sea, which is covered with islands, bears a strongresemblance to that of Norway.

There cannot be a doubt that the Hebrides formedpart of the mainland at some remote geologicalperiod, since they follow the direction of the moun-tain system in two parallel lines of rugged and im-posing aspect, never exceeding the height of 3200feet. The undulating country on the borders ofScotland becomes higher in the west of Englandand North Wales, where the hills are wild, but thevalleys are cultivated like a garden, and the Englishlake scenery is of the most gentle beauty.

Evergreen Ireland is mostly a mountainouscountry, and opposes to the Atlantic storms an iron-bound coast of the wildest aspect; but it is rich inarable land and pasture, and possesses the most pic-turesque lake-scenery ; indeed, fresh-water lakes inthe mountain valleys, so peculiarly characteristic ofthe European system, are the great ornaments ofthe high lands of Britain.

Various parts of the British islands were dry

MOUNTAINS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 87

land while most of the continent of Europe was yetbelow the ancient ocean. The high land of Lam-mermuir, the Grampian hills in Scotland, andthose of Cumberland in England, were raised beforethe Alps had begun to appear above the waves.In general all the highest parts of the Britishmountains are of granite and stratified crystallinerocks. The primary fossiliferous strata are of im-mense thickness in Cumberland and in the northof Wales, and the old red sandstone, many hundredfeet thick, stretches from sea to sea along the flanksof the Grampians. The coal-strata are developedon a great scale in the south of Scotland and thenorth of England, and examples of every formation,with one exception, are to be found in these is-lands. Volcanic fires had been very active in earlytimes, and nowhere is the columnar structure morebeautifully exhibited than in Fingal's Cave and theStorr of Sky in the Hebrides; and in the north ofIreland a base of 800 square miles of mica slateis covered with volcanic rocks, which end on thecoast in the magnificent columns of the Giant'sCauseway.

The Ural chain, the boundary between Europeand Asia, is the only interruption to the level of thegreat northern plain, and is altogether unconnectedwith, and far separated from, the Altai Mountains bysalt lakes, marshes, and deserts. The central ridgemay be traced from between the Lake of Aral andthe Caspian Sea; but as a chain it really begins onthe right bank of the Ural river at the steppes of the


Kirghis, about the 51st degree of north latitude, andruns due north in a long narrow ridge to the Gulf ofKara in the Polar Ocean, though it may be said toterminate in dreary rocks on the west side of NovaZembla. The Ural range is about the height ofthe mountains in the Black Forest or the Vosges,and, with few exceptions, is wooded to the top,chiefly by the pinus cimbra. The immense mineralriches of these mountains—gold, platina, magneticiron, and copper—lie on the Siberian side, and chieflybetween the 54th and 60th degrees of north latitude,the only part that is colonized, and one of the most in-dustrious and civilized regions of the Russian empire.To the south the chain is pastoral, about 100 milesbroad, consisting of longitudinal ridges, the highestof which does not exceed 3498 feet; in this partdiamonds are found. To the north of the miningdistrict the narrow mural mass, which is at mostbut 5720 feet above the sea-level, is covered withimpenetrable forests and deep morasses, altogetheruninhabitable and unexplored. Throughout theUral Mountains there are neither precipices, trans-verse gorges, nor any of the characteristics of a highchain : the descent on both sides is so gentle that inmany places it is difficult to know where the plainbegins ; and the road over the chain from Russia toSiberia by Ekaterinburg is so low that it hardlyseems to be a mountain pass. The gentle descentand sluggishness of the streams produce extensivemarshes along the Siberian base of the range. Tothe arduous and enterprising researches of Sir

THE URAL. 89

Roderick Murchison we are indebted for almost allwe know of these mountains; he found them on thewestern side to be composed of silurian, devonian,and carboniferous rocks more or less altered andcrystallized ; and on the eastern side the mines arein metamorphic strata, mixed with rocks of igneousorigin, and the central axis is of quartzose and chlo-ritic rocks.

The great zone of high land which extends alongthe old continent from the Atlantic to the shores ofthe Pacific Ocean divides the low lands into twovery unequal parts. That to the north, only brokenby the Ural range, and the Valdai table-land of stillless elevation, stretches from the Thames or theBritish hills and the eastern bank of the Seine toBehring's Straits, including more than 190° of longi-tude, and occupying an area of at least four millionsand a half of square geographical miles, which is athird more than all Europe. The greater part ofit is perfectly level, with a few elevations and lowhills, and in many places a dead level extends hun-dreds of miles. The country between the Carpa-thian and Ural Mountains is a flat, on which thereis scarcely a rise in 1500 miles, and in the steppesof southern Russia and Siberia the extent of levelground is immense. The mean absolute height ofthe flat provinces of France is 480 feet; Mos-cow, the highest point of the European plain, isalso 480 feet high, from whence the land slopesimperceptibly to the sea both on the north andsouth, till it absolutely dips below its level. Holland,


on one side, would be overflowed were it not for itsdykes, and towards Astrakan the plain sinks stilllower. The whole of that extensive country northand east of the Caspian Sea, and around the lake ofAral, forms a vast cavity of 18,000 square leagues,all considerably below the level of the ocean; andthe surface of the Caspian Sea itself, the lowestpoint, has a depression of 348 feet.

The European part of the plain is highly culti-vated and very productive in the more civilizedcountries in its western and middle regions and alongthe Baltic. The greatest amount of cultivated landlies to the north of the watershed which stretchesfrom the Carpathians to the centre of the Uralchain; yet there are large heaths which extendfrom the extremity of Jutland through Lunebourgand Westphalia to Belgium. The land is ofexcellent quality to the south of it. Eound Pol-kova and Moscow there is an extent of thefinest vegetable mould, equal in size to Franceand the Spanish peninsula together, which formspart of the High Steppe, and is mostly in a state ofnature.

A large portion of the great plain is pasture-land, and wide tracts are covered with naturalforests, especially in Poland and Eussia, wherethere are millions of acres of pine, fir, and de-ciduous trees.

The quantity of waste land in Europe is verygreat, and there are also many swamps ; a morass aslong as England extends along the 52nd parallel

THE GREAT NORTHERN PLAIN. 91

of latitude, following the course of the riverPrepit, a branch of the Dniestre, which runs throughits centre. There are swamps at the mouths of manyof the sluggish rivers in central Europe ; they cover1970 square miles in Denmark, and mossy quagmiresoccur frequently in the more northerly parts.

Towards the eastern extremity of Europe thegreat plain assumes the peculiar character of desertcalled, a steppe, a word supposed to be of Tartarorigin, signifying a level waste destitute of trees;hence the steppes may vary according to the natureof the soil. They begin at the river Dnieper, andextend along the shores of the Black Sea : they in-clude all the country north and east of the CaspianLake and Independent Tartary, and, passing betweenthe Ural and Altai Mountains, they may be said tooccupy all the low lands of Siberia. Hundreds ofleagues may be traversed east from the Dnieperwithout variation of scene ; a dead level of thin butluxuriant pasture, bounded only by the horizon, dayafter day the same unbroken monotony fatigues theeye : sometimes there is the appearance of a lake,which vanishes on approach, the phantom of atmo-spheric refraction. Horses and cattle beyond numbergive some animation to the scene so long as thesteppes are green, but winter comes in October, andthen they become a trackless field of spotless snow.Fearful storms rage, and the dry snow is driven bythe gale with a violence which neither man noranimal can resist, while the sky is clear and the sunshines cold and bright above the earthly turmoil.


The contest between spring and winter is long and

severe, for—

" Winter oft at once resumes the breeze,Chills the pale mom, and bids his driving sleetsDeform the day, delightless."

Yet when gentler gales succeed, and the waters runoff in torrents through the channels which they cutin the soft ground, the earth is again verdant. Thescorching summer's sun is as severe in its conse-quences in these wild regions as the winter's cold:in June the steppes are parched, no shower falls, nordoes a drop of dew refresh the thirsty and rent earth:the sun rises and sets like a globe of fire, and duringthe day he is obscured by a thick mist from theevaporation. In some seasons the drought is ex-cessive; the air is filled with dust in impalpablepowder ; the springs become dry, and cattle perish inthousands. Death triumphs over animal and vege-table nature, and desolation tracks the scene to theutmost verge of the horizon, a hideous wreck.

Much of this country is covered by an excellentbut thin soil, n't for corn, which grows luxuriantlywherever it has been tried ; but a stiff cold clay at asmall distance below the surface kills every herb thathas deep roots, and no plants thrive but those whichcan resist the extreme vicissitudes of climate. Avery wide range is hopelessly barren ; the countryfrom the Caucasus along the shores of the Black andCaspian Seas, a dead flat twice the size of the Britishislands, is desert and destitute of fresh water. Anefflorescence of salt covers the surface like hoar-frost;


even the atmosphere and the dew are saline, andmany salt-lakes in the neighbourhood of Astrakanfurnish great quantities of common salt and nitre.Saline plants, with patches of verdure few and farbetween, are the only signs of vegetable life, butabout Astrakan there is soil and cultivation. Somelow hills occur in the country between the Caspianand the Lake of Aral, but it is mostly an oceanof shifting sand, often driven by appalling whirl-winds.

Turkistan is a sandy desert, except on the banksof the Oxus and the Jaxartes, and as far on eachside of them as canals convey the fertilizing waters.To the north barrenness gives place to verdure be-tween the Ural river and the terraces and mountainsof central Asia, where the steppes of the Kirghizafford pasture to thousands of camels and cattle be-longing to these wandering hordes.

Siberia is either a dead level or undulating sur-face of more than 7,000,000 of square miles, betweenthe North Pacific and the Ural Mountains, the PolarSea and the Altai range, whose terraces and offsetsend in those plains, like headlands and promontoriesin the ocean. M. Middendorf, indeed, met with achain of most desolate mountains on the shores ofthe Polar Ocean, in the country of the Samoides ;and the almost inapproachable coast far to the eastis unexplored. The mineral riches of the mountainshave brought together a population who inhabittowns of considerable importance along the base ofthe Ural and Altai chains, where the ground yields


good crops and pasture ; and there are forests onthe undulations of the mountains and on the plains.There are many hundred square miles of rich blackmould covered with trees and grass, uninhabited,between the river Tobal and the upper course ofthe Obi, within the limit where corn would grow;but even this valuable soil is studded with smalllakes [of salt and fresh water, a chain of which,300 miles long, skirts the base of the Ural Moun-tains.

North of the 62nd parallel of latitude corn doesnot ripen, on account of the biting blasts from theIcy Ocean which sweep supreme over these unpro-tected wastes. In a higher latitude even the inter-minable forests of gloomy fir are seen no more; allis a wide-spreading desolation of salt steppes, bound-less swamps, and lakes of salt and fresh water. Thecold is so intense there that the spongy soil is per-petually frozen to the depth of some hundred feetbelow the surface ; and the surface itself, not thawedbefore the end of June, is again ice-bound by themiddle of September, and deep snow covers theground nine or ten months in the year. Happilygales of wind are not frequent during winter, butwhen they do occur no living thing ventures to facethem. The sun, though long absent from these dis-mal regions, does not leave them to utter darkness;the extraordinary brilliancy of the stars, and thegleaming snow-light, produce a kind of twilight,which is augmented by the splendid coruscations ofthe Aurora Borealis.


The scorching heat of the summer's sun producesa change like magic on the southern provinces of theSiberian wilderness. The snow is scarcely gonebefore the ground is covered with verdure, andflowers of various hues blossom, bear their seed, anddie in a few months, when winter resumes his empire.A still shorter-lived vegetation scantily covers theplains in the far north, and, on the shores of the IcyOcean, even reindeer-moss grows scantily.

The abundance of fur-bearing animals in the lessrigorous parts of the Siberian deserts has temptedthe Russians to colonize and build towns on thesefrozen plains. Yakutsk, on the river Lena, in62° 1' 30" N. latitude, is probably the coldest townon earth. The ground is perpetually frozen to thedepth of more than 400 feet, of which three feet onlyare thawed in summer, when Fahrenheit's thermo-meter is frequently 77° in the shade; and as thereis sometimes no frost for four months, larch forestscover the ground, and wheat and rye produce fromfifteen to forty fold. In winter the cold is so intensethat mercury is constantly frozen two months, andoccasionally even three.

In the northern parts of Europe the silurian,devonian, and carboniferous strata are widely deve-loped, and more to the south they are followed inascending order by immense tracts of the higherseries of secondary rocks, abounding in the hugemonsters of a former world. Very large and inte-resting tertiary basins fill the ancient hollows inmany parts of the plain, which are crowded with the


remains of animals that no longer exist. Of thesethe most important are the London, Paris, Brussels,and Moscow basins, with many others in the northof Germany and Russia, and alluvial soil covers thegreater part of the plain. In the east Sir RoderickMurchison has determined the boundary of a regiontwice as large as France, extending from the PolarOcean to the southern steppes, and from beyond theVolga to the flanks of the Ural chain, which consistsof a red deposit of sand and marl, full of copper ingrains, belonging to the Permian system. This,and the immense tract of black loam already men-tioned, are the principal features of eastern Europe.

CHAPTER VI.

THE SOUTHERN LOW LANDS OF THE GREAT CONTINENT, WITH

THEIR SECONDARY TABLE-LANDS AND MOUNTAINS.

T H E low lands to the south of the great mountaingirdle of the old continent are much broken by itsoffsets, by separate groups of mountains, and stillmore by the deep indentation of bays and large seas.Situate in lower latitudes, and sheltered by moun-tains from the cutting Siberian winds, these plainsare of a more tropical character than those to thenorth; but they are strikingly contrasted in theirdifferent parts,—either rich in all the exuberancethat heat, moisture, and soil can produce, orcovered by wastes of bare sand,—in the most ad-vanced state of cultivation, or in the wildest garbof nature.

The barren parts of the low lands lying betweenthe eastern shores of China and the Indus bear asmall proportion to the riches of a soil vivified bytropical warmth, and watered by the periodical inun-dations of the mighty rivers that burst from the icycaverns of Tibet and the Himalaya. On the con-trary, the favoured regions on that part of the lowlands lying between the Persian Gulf, the Euphrates,and the Atlas Mountains, are small when comparedwith the immense expanse of the Arabian and Afri-

VOL. I. H


can deserts, calcined and scorched by an equatorialsun. The blessing of a mountain zone, pouring outits everlasting treasures of moisture, the life-blood ofthe soil, is nowhere more strikingly exhibited thanin the contrast formed by these two regions of theglobe.

The Tartar country of Mandshur, watered by theriver Amour, but little known to Europeans, liesimmediately south of the Yablonnoi branch of theAltai chain, and consequently partakes of the desertaspect of Siberia, and, in its northern parts, even ofthe Great Gobi. I t is partly intersected by moun-tains, and covered by dense forests ; nevertheless, oatsgrow in the plains, and even wheat in shelteredplaces. Towards Corea the country is more fertile;in that peninsula there are cultivated plains at thebase of its central mountain range.

China is the most productive country on the faceof the earth ; an alluvial plain of 210,000 squaremiles, formed by one of the most extensive riversystems in the old world, occupies its eastern part.This plain, seven times the size of Lombardy, is noless fertile, and perfectly irrigated by canals. Thegreat canal traverses the eastern part of the plain for700 miles, of which 500 are in a straight line of con-siderable breadth, with a current in the greater partof it. Most part of the plain is in rice and gardenground, the whole cultivated with the spade. Thetea-plant grows on a low range of hills between the30th and £2nd parallels of north latitude, an offsetfrom the Pe-ling chain. The cold in winter is

THE INDO-CHINESE PENINSULA. 99

much greater than in corresponding European lati-tudes, and the heat in summer is proportionally-excessive.

The Indo-Chinese peninsula, lying between Chinaand the river Brahmapootra, has an area of 77,700square miles, and projects 1500 miles into theocean. The plains lying between the offsets descend-ing from the east end of the Himalaya, and whichdivide it longitudinally, as before mentioned, arevery extensive. The Birman empire alone, whichoccupies the valley of the Irrawaddy, is said to be aslarge as France, and not less fertile, especially itssouthern part, which is the granary of the empire.Magnificent rivers intersect the alluvial plains, whosesoil they have brought down from the table-land ofTibet, and still continue to deposit in great quan-tities in the deltas at their mouths.

The plains of Hindostan extend 2000 miles alongthe southern slope of the Himalaya and HindooCoosh, between the Brahmapootra and the Indus, andterminate on the south in the Bay of Bengal, thetable-land of the Decan, and the Indian Ocean—acountry embracing in its range every variety of cli-mate, from tropical heat and moisture to the genialtemperature of southern Europe.

The valley of the Ganges is one of the richest onthe globe, and contains a greater extent of vegetablemould, and of land under cultivation, than any othercountry in this continent, except perhaps the Chineseempire. In its upper part, Sirhind and Delhi, theseat of the ancient Mongol empire, still rich in

H 2


splendid specimens of Indian art, are partly arid,although in the latter there is fertile soil. The countryis beautiful where the Jumna and other streams uniteto form the Ganges. These rivers are often hemmedin by rocks and high banks, which in a great mea-sure prevent the periodical overflow of the waters;this, however, is compensated by the coolness andmoisture of the climate. The land gradually im-proves towards the east, as it becomes more flat, tillat last there is not a stone to be seen for hundreds ofmiles down to the Gulf of Bengal. Wheat and otherEuropean grain is produced in the upper part of thismagnificent valley, while in the south every varietyof Indian fruit, rice, cotton, indigo, opium, andsugar, are the staple commodities. The ascent ofthe plain of the Ganges from the Bay of Bengalis so gradual, that Saharampore, nearly, at the footof the Himalaya, is only 1100 feet above the levelof Calcutta; the consequence of which is, that theGanges and Brahmapootra, with their branches, inthe rainy season between June and September, layBengal under water for hundreds of miles in everydirection, like a great sea. When the water subsides,the plains are verdant with rice and other grain; butwhen harvest is over, and the heat intense, the scene ischanged—the country, divested of its beauty, becomesparched and dusty everywhere, except in the extensivejungles. I t has been estimated that one-third of theBritish territory in India is covered with these rankmarshy tracts.

The peninsula of Hindostan is occupied by the tri-

PENINSULA OF HINDOSTAN. 101

angular-shaped table-land of the Decan, which ismuch lower, and totally unconnected with the table-land of Tibet. I t has the primary ranges of theGhauts on the east and west, and the Vendhya Moun-tains on the north, sloping by successive levels .to theplains of Hindostan Proper. The surface of theDecan, between 3000 and 4000 feet above the sea,is a combination of plains, ridges of rock, and insu-lated flat-topped hills, which are numerous, especiallyin its north-eastern parts. These solitary and almostinaccessible heights rise abruptly from the plains, withall but perpendicular sides, which can only be scaledby steps cut in the rock, or by very dangerous paths.Many are fortified, and were the strongholds of thenatives, but they never have withstood the deter-mined intrepidity of British soldiers.

The peninsula terminates with the table-land of theMysore, 7000 feet above the sea, surrounded byhills 1500 higher.

The base of this plateau, and indeed of all theDecan, is granite, and there are also syenitic andtrap rocks, with abundance of primary and secondaryfossiliferous strata. Though possessing the diamond-mines of Golconda, the true riches of this countryconsist in its vegetable mould, which in the Mysoreis a hundred feet thick, an inexhaustible source offertility. The sea-coasts on the two sides of the pe-ninsula are essentially different: that of Malabar isrocky, but in many parts well cultivated, and itshigh mountains are covered with forests ; whereas onthe Coromandel coast the mountains are bare, and


the wide maritime plains are for the most partparched.

The island of Ceylon, nearly equal in extent toIreland, is almost joined to the southern extremity ofthe peninsula by sandbanks and small islands, be-tween which the water is only six feet deep in springtides. The Sanscrit name of the " Eesplendent"may convey some idea of this island, rich and fertilein soil, adorned by lofty mountains, numerous streams,and primeval forests ; in addition to which it is richin precious stones, and has the pearl-oyster on itscoast.

The Asiatic low lands are continued westwardfrom the Indian peninsula by the Punjab and theGreat Indian Desert. The Punjab, or " country ofthe five rivers," lies at the base of the Hindoo Coosh.Its most northern part consists of fertile terraces,highly cultivated, and valleys at the foot of themountains. It is very productive in the plain withinthe limits of the periodical inundations of the rivers,and where it is watered by canals ; in other parts itis pastoral. Lahore occupies the chief part of thePunjab ; and the city of that name on the Indus,once the rival of Delhi, lies on the high roadfrom Persia to India, and was made the capital ofthe kingdom by Runjeet Sing. The valley of theIndus throughout partakes of the character of thePunjab; it is fertile only where it is within reachof water ; much of it is delta, which is occupiedby rice-grounds; the rest is pasture, or sterile salmarshes.

GREAT INDIAN DESERT. 103

South of the Punjab, and between the fertile plainsof Hindostan and the left banks of the Indus, lies theGreat Indian Desert, which is about 490 miles broad,and becomes more and more arid as it approaches theriver. I t consists of a hard clay, covered with shift-ing- sand, driven into high waves by the wind, withsome parts that are verdant after the rains. In theprovince of Cutch, south of the desert, a space of7000 square miles, known as the Run of Cutch, isalternately a sandy salt desert and an inland sea. InApril the waves of the sea are driven over it by theprevailing winds, leaving only a few grassy emi-nences, the resort of wild asses. The Desert of Me-kram, an equally barren tract, extends along theGulf of Oman from the mouths of the Indus to thePersian Gulf; in some places, however, it producesthe Indian palm and the aromatic shrubs of ArabiaFelix.

The scathed shores of the Arabian Gulf, wherenot a blade of grass freshens the arid sands, and thenot less barren valley of the Euphrates and Tigris,except where the floods of these rivers irrigate thesoil, separate Asia from Arabia and Africa, the mostdesert regions in the old world.

The peninsula of Arabia, divided into two parts bythe tropic of Cancer, is about four times the size ofFrance. No rivers, and few streams or springs,nourish this thirsty land, whose barren sands arescorched by a fierce sun. The central part is a table-land of moderate height, which, however, is said tohave an elevation of 8000 feet in the province of


Haudramaut. To the south of the tropic it is analmost interminable ocean of drifting sand, wafted inclouds by the gale, and dreaded even by the wander-ing Beduin. At wide intervals, long, narrow de-pressions cheer the eye with brushwood and verdure.More to the north, mountains and hills cross thepeninsula from S.W. to N.E. , enclosing cultivatedand fine pastoral valleys, adorned by groves of thedate-palm and aromatic shrubs. Desolation oncemore resumes its domain where the table-land sinksinto the Syrian desert, and throughout the rest of itscircumference it descends in terraces or parallelranges of mountains and hills to a flat sandy coast,from 30 to 100 miles wide, which surrounds thegreater part of the peninsula, from the mouths of theEuphrates to the isthmus of Suez. The hills comeclose to the beach in the province of Oman, which istraversed by chains, and broken into piles of aridmountains, not more than 3500 feet high, with theexception of the Jebel Okkdar, which is 6000 feetabove the sea, and is cleft by temporary streams andfertile valleys. Here the ground is cultivated andcovered with verdure, and still farther south there isa line of oases fed by subterraneous springs, wherethe fruits common to Persia, India, and Arabia areproduced.

The south-eastern coast is scarcely known, excepttowards the provinces of Haudramaut and Yemen,or Arabia Felix, where ranges of mountains, someabove 5000 feet high, line the coast, and in manyplaces project into the ocean, sometimes forming

PENINSULA OF ARABIA. 105

excellent harbours, as that of Aden, which is pro-tected by jutting rocks. In the intervals there aretowns and villages, cotton-trees, date-groves, andcultivated ground.

On the northern side of these granite ranges, wherethe table-land is 8000 feet above the sea, and alongthe edge of the desert of El Aklaj, in Haudramaut,there is a tract of sand so loose and so very fine, thata plummet was sunk in it by Baron Wrede to thedepth of 360 feet without reaching the bottom.There is a tradition in the country that the army ofKing Suffi perished in attempting to cross this desert.Arabia Felix, which merits its name, is the only partof that country with permanent streams, though theyare small. Here also the mountains and fertileground run far inland, producing grain, pasture,coffee, odoriferous plants, and gums. High cliffsline the shores of the Indian Ocean and the Strait ofBabelman-deb, " the Gate of Tears." The fertilecountry is continued a considerable way along thecoast of the Red Sea, but the character of barren-ness is resumed by degrees, till at length the hillsand intervening terraces, on which Mecca and Me-dina, the holy cities of the Mahomedans, stand, aresterile wastes wherever springs do not water them-The blast, of the desert, loaded with burning sand,sweeps over these parched regions. Mountains skirtthe table-land to the north ; and the peninsula be-tween the Gulfs of Akaba and Suez on the Red Sea,the Eliath of Scripture, is filled by the mountain-groups of Sinai and Horeb. Jebel Housa, Mount


Sinai, on which Moses received the Ten Command-ments, is 9000 feet high, surrounded by highermountains, which are covered with snow in winter-The group of Sinai is full of springs, and verdant.At its northern extremity lies the desert of El-Teh,70 miles long and 30 broad, in which the Israeliteswandered forty years. I t is covered with longranges of high rocks, of most repulsive aspect, rentinto deep clefts only a few feet wide, hemmed in bywalls of rock sometimes 1000 feet high, like thedeserted streets of a Cyclopean town. The wholeof Arabia Petrea, Edom of the sacred writers, pre-sents a scene of appalling desolation completely ful-filling the denunciation of prophecy.

A sandy desert, crossed by low limestone ridges,separates the table-land of Arabia from the habitablepart of Syria, which the mountains of Lebanon divideinto two narrow plains. These mountains mayalmost be considered offsets from the Taurus chain;at least they are joined to it by the wooded range ofGawoor, the ancient Amanus, impassable except bytwo defiles, celebrated in history as the Amanic andSyrian Gates. The group of Lebanon begins withMount Cavius, which rises abruptly from the sea ina single peak to the height of 7000 feet, at the mouthof the river Orontes. From thence the chain runssouth, at a distance of about 20 miles from the shoresof the Mediterranean, in a continuous line of peaksto the sources of the Jordan, where it splitsinto two nearly parallel naked branches, enclosingthe wide and fertile plain of Beka or Ghor, the

PENINSULA OF ARABIA. 107

ancient Coelo-Syria, in which are the ruins ofBalbec.

The Lebanon branch terminates at the sea nearthe mouth of the river Leontes, a few miles north ofthe city of old Tyre ; while the Anti-Libanus, whichbegins at Mount Hermon, 9000 feet high, runs westof the Jordan through Palestine, in a winding line,till its last spurs, south of the Dead Sea, sink inridges of rock on the desert of Sinai.

The tops of all these mountains, from Scanderoonto Jerusalem, are covered with snow in winter; it ispermanent on Lebanon only, whose absolute elevationis 9300 feet. The precipices are terrific, the springsabundant, and the spurs of the mountains are studdedwith villages and convents ; there are forests in thehigher grounds, and lower down vineyards and gar-dens. Many offsets from the Anti-Libanus end pre-cipitously on the coast between Tripoli and Berout,among which the scenery is superb.

The valleys and plains of Syria are full of richvegetable mould, particularly the plain of Damascus,which is brilliantly verdant, though surrounded bydeserts, the barren uniformity of which is relieved onthe east by the broken columns and ruined temples ofPalmyra and Tadmore. The Assyrian wilderness,however, is not everywhere absolutely barren. Inthe spring-time it is covered with a thin but vividverdure, mixed with fragrant aromatic herbs, of veryshort duration. When these are burnt up, the un-bounded plains resume their wonted dreariness. Thecountry, high and low, becomes more barren towards


the Holy Land, yet even here some of the mountains—as Carmel, Bashan, and Tabor—are luxuriantlywooded, and many of the valleys are fertile, especiallythe valley of the Jordan, which has the appearanceof pleasure-grounds, with groves of wood and aro-matic plants, but almost in a state of nature. One sideof the Lake of Galilee is savage; on the other thereare gentle hills and wild romantic vales, adorned withpalm-trees, olives, and scycamores,—a scene, of calmsolitude and pastoral beauty. Jerusalem stands on adeclivity encompassed by severe stony mountains,wild and desolate. The greater part of Syria is adesert compared with its ancient state. Mussulmanrule has blighted this fair region, once flowing withmilk and honey,—the land of promise.

Farther south desolation increases; the valleysbecome narrower, the hills more denuded and rugged,till south of the Dead Sea their dreary aspect an-nounces the approach to the desert.

The valley of the Jordan affords the most remark-able instance known of the depression of the landbelow the general surface of the globe. This hollow,which extends from the Gulf of Accabah on theRed Sea to the bifurcation of Lebanon, is 625 feetbelow the level of the Mediterranean at the Sea ofGalilee, and the acrid waters of the Dead Sea havea depression of 1230 feet. The lowness of the valleyhad been observed by the Romans, who gave it the de-scriptive name of Coelo-Syria," Hollow Syria." It isabsolutely walled in by mountains between the DeadSea and Lebanon, where it is from 10 to 15 miles wide.

VALLEY OF THE JORDAN. 109

A shrinking of the strata must have taken placealong this coast of the Mediterranean from a suddenchange of temperature, or perhaps in consequence ofsome of the internal props giving way, for the valleyof the Jordan is not the only instance of a dip of thesoil below the sea-level; the small bitter lakes onthe Isthmus of Suez are cavities of the same kind, aswell as the Natron lakes on the Libyan desert westfrom the delta of the Nile.

CHAPTER VII.

AFRICA :—TABLE-LAND—CAPE OF GOOD HOPE AND EASTERN

COAST—WESTERN COAST—ABYSSINIA—SENEGAMBIA—LOW

LANDS AND DESERTS.

T H E continent of Africa is 5000 miles long fromthe Cape of Good Hope to its northern extremity,and as much between Cape Guardafui, on the IndianOcean, and Cape Verde, on the Atlantic ; but, fromthe irregularity of its figure, it has an area of only12,000,000 square miles. It is divided in twoby the equator, consequently the greater part of itlies under a tropical sun. The high and low landsof this portion of the old continent are so distinctlyseparated by the Mountains of the Moon, that, withthe exception of the mountainous territory of theAtlas, and the small table-land of Barca, it may besaid to consist of two parts only, a high country anda low.

An extensive, though not very elevated table-land,occupies all southern Africa, and even reaches to sixor seven degrees north of the equator. On threesides it shelves down in tiers of narrow parallel ter-races to the ocean, separated by mountain-chainswhich rise in height as they recede from the coast;and there is reason to believe that the structure ofthe northern declivity is similar, though its extremi-ties only are known—namely, Abyssinia on the

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. I l l

east, and the high land of Senegambia on the west;both of which project farther to the north than thecentral part.

The borders of the table-land are very little knownto Europeans, and still less its surface, which nowhite man has crossed north of the Tropic of Ca-pricorn. A comparatively small part, north fromthe Cape of Good Hope, has been explored by Euro-pean travellers. Mr. Truter and Mr. Somervillewere the first white men whom the inhabitants ofLitakoo had seen. Of an expedition that followedtheir track, a few years after, no one returned.

North of the Cape the land rises to 6000 feetabove the sea, and the Orange River, with its tri-butaries, may be more aptly said to drain than toirrigate the arid country through which they flow;many of the tributaries, indeed, are only the chan-nels through which torrents, from the periodicalrains, are carried to the Orange River, and aredestitute of water many months in the year. The" Dry River," the name of one of these periodicalstreams, is in that country no misnomer. Theirmargins are adorned with mimosas, and the sandyplains have furnished treasures to the botanist.

Dr. Smith crossed the Tropic of Capricorn in ajourney from the Cape of Good Hope, where thecountry had still the same arid character. Northfrom that there is a great tract unexplored. In1802 two native travelling merchants crossed thecontinent, which is 1590 miles wide, from Loanda, onthe Atlantic, to Zambeze, on the Mozambique Chan-


nel. They found various mercantile nations, con-siderably advanced in civilization, who raise abund-ance of maize and millet, though the greater part ofthe country is in a state of nature. Ridges of lowhills, yielding copper, the staple commodity of thiscountry, run from S.E. to N.W. to the west of thedominions of the Cambeze, a country full of rivers,morasses, and extensive salt-marshes, which supplythis part of the continent with salt. The travellerscrossed 102 rivers, most of them fordable; but theleading feature of this country is Lake N'yassi, ofgreat but unknown length, though comparativelynarrow. It begins 200 miles north from the townof Tete, on the Zambeze, and extends from S.E. toN.W., flanked on the east by a range of mountainsof the same name, running in the same direction, atthe distance of 350 miles from the Mozambique Chan-nel. This is all we know of the table-land of southAfrica. It is evident, however, that there can beno very high mountains coverved with perpetualsnow on the table-land, for, if there were, southernAfrica would not be destitute of great rivers ; never-theless, the height of the Komri, or Mountains of theMoon, on its northern edge, must be considerable,to supply the perennial sources of the Nile, the Se-negal, and the Niger.

The edges of the table-land are better known.At the Cape of Good Hope the African continent isabout 700 miles broad, and ends in three narrow pa-rallel ridges of mountains, the last of which is thehighest and abuts on the table-land. All are cleft

THE CAPE MOUNTAINS. 113

by precipitous deep ravines, through which wintertorrents flow to the ocean. The longitudinal valleys,or karoos, that separate them are tiers, or steps, bywhich the plateau dips to the maritime plains. Thedescent is rapid, as both these plains and the moun-tain-ranges are very narrow. On the western sidethe mountains form a high group, and end in steeppromontories on the coast, where Table Mountain,at Cape Town, 3582 feet high, forms a conspicuouslandmark to mariners.

Granite, which is the base of southern Africa,rises to a considerable height in many places, and isgenerally surmounted by vast horizontal beds ofsandstone, which give that character of flatness pecu-liar to the summits of many of the Cape mountains.

The karoos, or longitudinal valleys, are arid de-serts in the dry season, but soon after the rains theyare covered with verdure and a splendid flora. Themaritime plains partake of the same temporary arid-ity, though a large portion is rich in cereal pro-ductions, vineyards, and pasture.

The most inland of the parallel ranges, about the20th meridian, is 10,000 feet high, and, though itsinks to some groups of hills at its eastern end, itrises again, about the 27th meridian, in a truly Al-pine and continuous chain—the Quotlamba Moun-tains, which follow the northerly direction of Natal,and are continued in the Lupata range of hills, 80miles inland, through Zanguebar.

At Natal the coast is grassy, with clumps of trees,like an English park. The Zambeze, and other

VOL. I. *


streams from the table-land, refresh the plains on theMozambique Channel and Zanguebar, where, thoughsome parts are marshy and covered with mangroves,groves of palm-trees adorn the plains, which yieldprodigious quantities of grain, and noble forestscover the mountains; but from 4° N. lat. to CapeGuardafui is a continued desert. There is also abarren tract at the southern end of the Lupatachain, where gold is found in masses and grains onthe surface and in the water-courses, which temptedthe Portuguese to make settlements on these unwhole-some coasts.

The island of Madagascar, with its magnificentrange of mountains, 12,000 feet high, full of tre-mendous precipices, and covered with primevalforests, is parallel to the African coast, and onlyseparated from it by the Mozambique Channel; soit may be presumed that it rose from the deep at thesame time as the Lupata chain.

The contrast between the eastern and westerncoasts of South Africa is very great. The escarpedbold mountains round the Cape of Good Hope, andits rocky coast, which extends a short way along theAtlantic to the north, are succeeded by ranges ofsandstone of small elevation, which separate the in-ternal sandy desert from the equally parched sandyshore. The terraced clip of the Atlantic coast, for900 miles between the Orange Eiver and Cape Ne-gro, has not a drop of fresh water.

At Cape Negro ranges of mountains, separated bylong level tracts, begin, and make a semicircular

WESTERN COAST OF AFRICA. 115

bend into the interior, leaving plains along the coast140 miles broad. In Benguela these plains arehealthy and cultivated ; farther north there are mo-notonous grassy savannahs, and forests of gigantictrees. The ground, in many places saturated withwater, bears a tangled crop of mangroves and tallreeds; which even cover the shoals along that flatcoast; hot pestilential vapours hang over them, neverdissipated by a breeze.

The country of the Calbongos is the highest landon the coast, where a magnificent group of mountains,13,000 feet above the sea, covered almost to theirtops with large timber, lie not far inland. The lowplains of Bafra and Benin, west of them, but espe-cially the delta of the Niger, consist entirely ofswamps loaded with rank vegetation. The angel ofDeath, brooding over these regions in noisome ex-halations, guards the interior of that country fromthe aggressions of the European, and has hithertobaffled his attempts to form settlements on the banksof this magnificent river.

Many portions of North Guinea are so fertile thatthey might'vie with the valley of the Nile in cerealriches, besides various other productions; and thoughthe temperature is very high, the climate is not veryunhealthy.

No European has yet seen the Mountains of theMoon, which are said to cross the continent alongthe northern edge of the great plateau, between thetwo projections or promontories of Abyssinia andSenegambia. This chain divides the semi-civilized

i2


states of Soudan, Bornou, and Begharmi from thebarbarous nations on the table-land. I t extendssouth of Abyssinia at one end, at the other it joinsthe high land of Senegambia, and is continued in theKong range, which runs 1200 miles behind Da-homy and the Gold Coast, and ends in the promon-tory of Sierra Leone.

The vast Alpine promontory of Abyssinia, orEthiopia, 700 miles wide, projects from the table-landfor 300 miles into the low lands of North Africa.I t dips in parallel ridges and longitudinal valleys tothe Red Sea on the east, to a low swampy region onthe north, and to the plains of Senaar and Kardofanon the west. The whole country is a mass of ruggedmountains, torn by ravines, with intervening cul-tivated valleys and verdant plains. The plain ofDembea, the summit of the plateau, 8000 feet abovethe sea, the granary of the country, also abounds inpasture, and enjoys a perpetual spring. Dr. Beke,who has travelled in the south of Abyssinia to withinsix degrees of the equator, found the same naturalcharacters.

The mountains of Abyssinia, and those to the westof it, are the watershed whence the streams thatform the Nile flow to the north, while the Quilimane,which rises also in these mountains, runs to the In-dian Ocean, and all the streams that rise east of Bor-nou run into Lake Tchad.

The geological structure of Abyssinia is similar tothat of the Cape of Good Hope, the base being gra-nite, and the superstructure sandstone, occasionally

ABYSSINIA—SENEGAMBIA. 117

with limestone, schist, and breccia. The granitecomes to the surface in the lower parts of Abyssinia,but sandstone predominates in the upper parts, andassumes a tabular form, often lying on the tops ofthe mountains in enormous flat masses, only acces-sible by steps cut in the rock, or by ladders. Suchinsulated spots are used as state prisons. Largetracts are of ancient volcanic rocks, especially inShoa.

Senegambia, the appendage to the western ex-tremity of the table-land, also projects far into thelow lands, and is the watershed whence the streamsflow on one side to the plains of Soudan, where theyjoin the Joliba, or Niger; and from the other side,the Gambia, Senegal, and other rivers, run into theAtlantic over a rich cultivated plain, but unhealthy,from the rankness of the vegetation.

The moisture that descends from the northernedge of the table-land of South Africa, under thefiery radiance of a tropical sun, fertilizes a tract ofcountry stretching from sea to sea across the con-tinent, the commencement of the African low lands.A great part of this region, which contains manykingdoms and commercial cities, is a very productivecountry. The abundance of water, the industry ofthe natives in irrigating the ground, the periodicalrains, and the tropical heat, leave the soil no repose.Agriculture is in a rude state, but nature is so boun-tiful that rice and millet are raised in sufficientquantity to supply the wants of a numerous popula-tion. Gold is i'ound in the river-courses, and there

118 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY

are elephants in the forests ; but man is the staple oftheir commerce,—a disgrace to the savage who sellshis fellow-creature, but a far greater disgrace to themore savage purchaser, who dares to assume thesacred name of Christian.

This long belt of never-failing vitality, which hasits large lakes, poisonous swamps, deep forests ofgigantic trees, and vast solitudes in which no whiteman ever trode, is of small width compared withits length. In receding from the mountains themoisture becomes less, and the soil gradually worse,sufficing only to produce grass for the flocks ofthe wandering Beduin. At last a hideous barrenwaste begins, which extends northwards 800 miles inunvaried desolation to the grassy steppes at the footof the Atlas; and, for 1000 miles between the At-lantic and the Red Sea, the nakedness of this blightedland is unbroken but by the valley of the Nile anda few oases.

In the west about 760,000 square miles, an areaequal to that of the Mediterranean Sea, is covered bythe trackless sands of the Sahara Desert, which iseven prolonged for miles into the Atlantic in theform of sandbanks. This desert is alternatelyscorched by heat and pinched by cold. The windblows from the east nine months in the year, and atthe equinoxes it rushes in a hurricane, driving thesand in clouds before it, producing the darkness ofnight at midday, and overwhelming caravans of menand animals in common destruction. Then the sandis heaped up in waves ever varying with the blast;

AFRICAN DESERTS. 119

even the atmosphere is of sand. The desolation ofthis dreary waste, boundless to the eye as the ocean,is terrific and sublime; the dry, heated air is like ared vapour, the setting sun seems to be a volcanicfire, and, at times, the burning wind of the desert isthe blast of death. There are many salt-lakes to thenorth, and even the springs are of brine; thick in-crustations of dazzling salt cover the ground, and theparticles, carried aloft by whirlwinds, flash in thesun like diamonds.

Sand is not the only character of the desert; tractsof gravel and low bare rocks occur at times, not lessbarren and dreary; but, on the eastern and northernborders of the Sahara, fresh water rises near the sur-face, and produces an occasional oasis where barrennessand vitality meet. The oases are generally depressedbelow the level of the desert, with an arenaceous orcalcareous border enclosing their emerald verdurelike a frame. The smaller oases produce herbage,ferns, acacias, and some shrubs ; forests of date-palmsgrow in the larger, which are the resort of lions,panthers, gazelles, reptiles, and a variety of birds.

In the Nubian and Libyan deserts, to the east ofthe Sahara, the continent shelves down towards theMediterranean in a series of steps, consisting of vastlevel sandy or gravelly deserts, lying east and west,separated by low rocky ridges. This shelving coun-try, which is only 540 feet above the sea at the dis-tance of 750 miles inland, is cut transversely by theNile, and by a deep furrow parallel to it, in whichthere is a long line of oases. This furrow, the Nile,


and the Red Sea, nearly parallel to both, are flankedby rocky eminences which go north from the table-land.

On the interminable sands and rocks of these de-serts no animal, no insect, breaks the dread silence;not a tree nor a shrub is to be seen in this landwithout a shadow. In the glare of noon the airquivers with the heat reflected from the red sand,and in the night it is chilled under a clear sky spark-ling with its host of stars. Strangely, but beautifully,contrasted with these scorched solitudes is the narrowvalley of the Nile, threading the desert for a thou-sand miles in emerald green, with its blue watersfoaming in rapids among wild rocks, or quietlyspreading in a calm stream amidst fields of corn, andthe august monuments of past ages.

At the distance of a few days' journey west fromthe Nile, over a hideous flinty plain, lies the furrowalready mentioned, trending to the north, and con-taining the oases of Darfour, Selime, the Great andLittle Oases, and the parallel valleys of the Natranlakes, and Bahr-Belama, or the " Dry River." TheGreat Oasis, or Oasis of Thebes, is 125 miles long,and 4 or 5 broad; the Lesser Oasis, separated fromit by 40 miles of desert, is of the same form. Bothare rich in verdure and cultivation, with villagesamid palm-groves and fruit-trees, mixed with the ruinsof remote antiquity ; ofFering scenes of peaceful andsoft beauty contrasted with the surrounding gloom.The Natran lakes are in the northern part of the val-ley of Nitrea, 35 miles west of the Nile; the southern

AFRICAN DESERTS. 121

part is a beautiful quiet spot, that became the retreatof Christian monks in the middle of the second cen-tury, and at one time contained 360 convents, ofwhich only four remain ; from these some very va-luable manuscripts of old date have recently beenobtained.

Another line of oases' runs along the latitude ofCairo, with fresh-water lakes, consequently no lessfertile than the preceding. The ruins of the Templeof Jupiter Ammon are in one of them.

Hundreds of miles on the northern edge of thedesert, from the Atlantic along the southern foot ofthe Atlas to the Great Syrte, are pasture-landswithout a tree, an ocean of verdure. At the GreatSyrte the Sahara comes to the shores of the Mediter-ranean, and, indeed, for 1100 miles between the ter-mination of the Atlas and the little table-land ofBarca, the ground is so unprofitable that the popula-tion only amounts to about 30,000, and these aremostly wandering tribes who feed their flocks on thegrassy steppes. Magnificent countries lie along theMediterranean coast, north of the Atlas, susceptibleef cultivation. History, and the ruins of many greatcities, attest their former splendour. Even now thereare many populous commercial cities, and much grainis raised, though a great part of these valuable king-doms is badly cultivated, or not cultivated at all.

The base of the sandy parts of North Africa isstiff clay. In Lower Nubia, between the parallelsof Assouan and Esneh, red and white granite prevail,followed by argillaceous sandstone. Middle Egypt


is calcareous, and lower down the Nile sand andalluvium cover the surface.

The prodigious extent of desert is one of the mostextraordinary circumstances in the structure of theold continent. A zone of almost irretrievable de-solation prevails from the Atlantic Ocean, acrossAfrica and through Central Asia, almost to thePacific Ocean, through at least 120 degrees of lon-gitude. There are also many large districts of thesame sterile nature in Europe ; and if to these sandy-plains the deserts of Siberia be added, together withall the barren and rocky mountain tracts, the un-productive land in the Old World is prodigious.The quantity of salt on the sandy plains is enor-mous, and proves that they have been part of the bedof the ocean, or of inland seas, at no very remotegeological period. The low lands round the BlackSea and Caspian, and the Lake of Aral, seem to havebeen the most recently reclaimed, from the greatproportion of shells in them identical with those nowexisting in these seas. The same may be said of theSahara Desert, where salt and recent shells areplentiful.

( 123 )

CHAPTER VIII.

AMERICAN CONTINENT—THE MOUNTAINS OF SOUTH AMERICA

THE ANDES THE MOUNTAINS OF THE PARIMA ANDBRAZIL.

SOME thinner portion of the crust of the globe underthe meridians that traverse the continent of Americafrom Cape Horn to the Arctic Ocean must haveyielded to the expansive forces of the subterraneanfires, or been rent by the contraction of the strata incooling. Through this the Andes had arisen, pro-ducing the greatest influence on the form of thecontinent, and the peculiar simplicity that prevailsin its principal mountain systems, which, with veryfew exceptions, have a general tendency from northto south. The continent is 9000 miles long, and, itsform' being two great peninsulas joined by a longnarrow isthmus, it is divided by nature into thethree parts of South, Central, and North America;yet these three are connected by the mighty chain ofthe Andes, but little inferior in height to the Hima-laya, running along the coast of the Pacific fromwithin the Arctic nearly to the Antarctic circle.In this course every variety of climate is to be metwith, from the rigour of polar congelation to thescorching heat of the torrid zone; while the moun-tains are so high that the same extremes of heat andcold may be experienced in the journey of a few


hours from the burning plains of Peru to the snow-clad peaks above. In this long chain there arethree distinct varieties of character, nearly, thoughnot entirely, corresponding to the three naturaldivisions of the continent. The Andes of SouthAmerica differ materially from those of CentralAmerica and Mexico, while both are dissimilar tothe Andes of North America, generally known asthe Chippewayan or Eocky Mountains.

The greatest length of South America from CapeHorn to the Isthmus of Panama is about 4550miles. I t is very narrow at its southern extremity,but increases in width northwards to the latitude ofCape Roque on the Atlantic, between which andCape Blanco on the Pacific it attains its greatestbreadth of nearly 2446 miles. I t consists of threemountain systems, separated by the basins of threeof the greatest rivers in the world. The Andesrun along the western coast from Cape Horn tothe Isthmus of Panama, in a single chain of smallwidth but majestic height, dipping rapidly to thenarrow maritime plains of the Pacific, but descend-ing on the east in high valleys and occasional offsetsto plains of vast extent, whose dead level is forhundreds of miles as unbroken as that of the oceanby which they are bounded. Nevertheless two de-tached mountain systems rise on these plains, one inBrazil between the Rio de la Plata and the river ofthe Amazons; the other is that of Parima andGuiana, lying between the river of the Amazons andthe Oronoco.

THE ANDES. 125

The great chain of the Andes first raises its crestabove the waves of the Antarctic Ocean in the ma-jestic dark mass of Cape Horn, the southernmostpoint of the archipelago of Terra del Fuego. Thisgroup of mountainous islands, equal in size to Britain,is cut off from the main land by the Strait of Ma-gellan. The islands are penetrated in every directionby bays and narrow inlets of the sea, or fiords, endingin glaciers fed by the snow on the summits of moun-tains 6000 feet high. Peat-mosses cover the higherdeclivities of these mountains, and their flanks arebeset with densely entangled forests of brown beech,which never lose their dusky leaves, producing alto-gether a savage dismal scene. The mountains whichoccupy the western side of this cluster of islandssink down to wide level plains to the east, like thecontinent itself, of which the archipelago is but thesouthern extremity.

The Pacific comes to the very base of the Pata-gonian Andes for about 1000 miles, from Cape Hornto the 40th parallel of south latitude. The wholecoast is lined by a succession of archipelagos andislands, separated from the iron-bound shores bynarrow arms of the sea, which, in the more southernpart, are in fact profound longitudinal valleys ofthe Andes filled by the ocean, so that the chain ofislands running parallel to the axes of the mountainsis but the tops of an exterior range rising abovethe sea.

The coast itself for 650 miles is begirt by wallsof rock, which sink into an unfathomable depth,


torn by long crevices or fiords, similar to those onthe Norwegian shore, ending in tremendous glaciers,whose masses, falling with a crash like thunder,drive the sea in sweeping breakers through thesechasms. The islands and the main land are thicklyclothed with forests, which are of a less sombreaspect as the latitude decreases.

South of the archipelago of Chiloe there are fewspots susceptible of cultivation, and none fit for thepermanent habitation of man; but Chiloe itself,the most southerly part of the globe that is inha-bited, is fertile. There are four magnificent vol-canoes in the Andes opposite to these islands. Insouthern Chili the Andes retire a little from thesea, leaving plains traversed by ranges of hills2000 or 3000 feet high, running parallel to thecoast, cut by valleys and separated by flat basins,the beds of ancient lakes, now inhabited.

The Cordillera itself runs behind in a singlechain, about 20 miles broad, with 12,000 feetof mean elevation. The mountain-tops maintaina horizontal line parallel to that of perpetualsnow, surmounted at long intervals by groups ofpoints, or a solitary volcanic cone, in delicate reliefon the clear blue sky. Of these, Descabezado, the" Beheaded," rises 12,102 feet above the sea, andbehind Valparaiso, in the centre of a knot of moun-tains, the magnificent volcano of Aconcagua has anabsolute height of 23,000 feet. All the higherranges of the Chilian Andes are uninhabitable ; thereare very few valleys which lead to the central range,

THE ANDES. 127

and these are mostly in southern Chili; in otherplaces the chain is utterly impassable to beasts ofburthen. The flat parts of these mountains are oftenvolcanic, and the precipices are frightful. Thedescent is so abrupt on both sides, that northernChili may be esteemed a declivity of the Cordillera.

About the latitude of Conception the dense forestsof semi-tropical vegetation cease with the humidequable climate ; and as no rain falls in centralChili for nine months in the year, the brown, purple,and tile-red hills and mountains are only dotted hereand there with low trees and bushes; very soon,however, after the heavy showers have moistenedthe cracked ground, it is covered with a beautifulbut transient flora. In some valleys it is morepermanent and of a tropical character, mixed withAlpine plants. In southern Chili rain falls onlyonce in two or three years, the consequence of whichis sterility on the western precipitous and unbrokendescent of the Andes ; but on the east various se-condary branches leave the central Cordillera, whichextend 300 or 400 miles into the plains, woodedto a great height.

The chain takes the name of the Peruvian Andesabout the 24th degree of south latitude, and is sepa-rated from the Pacific for 1250 miles by a sandydesert, seldom above 60 miles broad, on which adrop of rain never falls, where bare rocks piercethrough the moving sand, and which has a mine ofrock-sa.lt, a character of deserts generally. Thewidth of the coast is nearly the same to the Isthmus


of Panama, but damp luxuriant forests, full of or-chidese, begin about the latitude of Payta, andcontinue northwards.

From its southern extremity to the Nevada ofChorolque, in 21° 30' S. lat., the Andes aremerely a grand range of mountains, but north of thatthe chain becomes a very elevated narrow table-land,or longitudinal Alpine valley, in the direction ofthe coast, bounded on each side by a parallel rowof high mountains, rising much above the table-land.These parallel Cordilleras are united at variouspoints by enormous transverse groups or mountain-knots, or by single ranges crossing between themlike dykes, a structure that prevails to Pasto in1° 13' 6'' N. lat. The descent to the Pacific isvery steep, but the dip is less rapid to the east,whence offsets diverge to the level plains. Themost remarkable peculiarity of the Andes is theabsence of transverse valleys ; with the exception ofa few in the Patagonian and south Chilian Andesthere is not an opening through these mountains inthe remainder of their course to the Isthmus ofPanama.

Unlike the table-lands of Asia of the same ele-vation, where cultivation is confined to the moresheltered spots, or those still lower in Europe, whichare only fit for pasture, these lofty regions of theAndes yield exuberant crops of every Europeangrain, and have many populous cities enjoying theluxuries of life, with universities, libraries, civil andreligious establishments, at altitudes equal to that of

THE ANDES. 129

the Peak of Teneriffe, which is 12,358 feet abovethe sea-level. Villages are placed and mines arewrought at heights little less than the top of MontBlanc. This state is not limited to the present times,since these table-lands were made the centre ofcivilization by a race of mankind which " bear thesame relation to the Incas and the present inhabit-ants that the Etruscans bear to the ancient Romansand to the Italians of our own days."

The table-land of Desaguadero, one of the mostremarkable of these, has an absolute altitude of13,000 feet, and a breadth varying from 30 to 60miles : it stretches 500 miles along the top of theAndes, between the transverse mountain-group ofLas Lipez, in 20° S. lat., and the enormousmountain-knot of Vilcanata and Cusco, which,extending from east to west, shuts in the valleyon the north, occupying an area three times aslarge as Switzerland, and rising 8300 feet abovethe surface of the table-land, from which some ideamay be formed of the gigantic scale of the Andes.This table-land or valley is bounded on each sideby the two grand chains of the Bolivian Andes:that on the west is the Cordillera of the coast; therange on the east side is the Cordillera Reale.These two rows of mountains lie so near the edgethat the whole breadth of the table-land, includingboth, is only 300 miles. All the snowy peaks ofthe Cordilleras of the coast, varying from 18,000 to22,000 feet in absolute height, are either activevolcanoes or of volcanic origin, and, with the ex-

VOL. I. K


ception of the volcano of Uvinas, they are all situateupon the maritime declivity of the table-land, andnot more than 60 miles from the Pacific; conse-quently the descent is very abrupt. The easternCordillera, which begins at the metalliferous moun-tains of Pasco and Potosi, is hot more than 17,000feet high to the south, and below the level of per-petual snow, but its northern portion contains thethree peaked mountains of Sorata, 25,000 feet abovethe sea, and is one of the most magnificent chainsin the Andes. The snowy part begins with the gi-gantic mass of Illimani, whose serrated ridges,elongated in the direction of the axis of the Andes,rise 24,000 feet above the ocean. The lowestglacier on its southern slope does not come below16,500 feet, and the valley of Totoral, a mere gulf18,000 feet deep, in which Vesuvius might stand,comes between Illimani and the Nevada of TresCruces, from whence the Cordillera Reale runs 'north-ward in a continuous line of snow-clad peaks to thegroup of Vilcanata and Cusco, which unites it withthe Cordilleras of the coast.

The valley or table-land of Desaguadero, occupy-ing 150,000 square miles, has a considerable varietyof surface; in the south, throughout the miningdistrict, it is poor and cold. There Potosi, thehighest city in the world, stands, at an absoluteelevation of 13,350 feet, on the declivity of a moun-tain celebrated for its silver-mines at the height of16,060 feet. Chiquisaca, the capital of Bolivia,containing 13,000 inhabitants, lies to the south-east

THE ANDES. 131

of Potosi, in the midst of cultivated fields. Thenorthern part of the valley is populous, and produc-tive in wheat, maize, and other grain ; and there isthe Lake of Titicaca, twenty times as large as theLake of Geneva. The islands and shores of thislake still exhibit ruins of gigantic magnitude, monu-ments of a people more ancient than the Incas.The modern city of La Paz d'Ayachuco with 40,000inhabitants, on its southern border, stands in themost sublime situation that can be imagined, havingthe vast Nevada of Illimani to the north, and the noless magnificent Sorata to the south. The tworanges of the Bolivian Andes in such close approxi-mation, with their smoking cones and serrated ridges,form one of the most august scenes in nature.

Many offsets leave the eastern side of the Cor-dillera Reale, which terminate in the great plain ofChiquitos and Paraguay ; the most important is theSierra Nevada de Cochobamba, which bounds a richvalley of the same name on the north, and, afterdividing the basins of the Rio de la Plata from thatof the Amazons for 200 miles, ends near the townof Santa Cruz de la Sierra.

There are fertile valleys and plains in the snow-capped group of Vilcanata and Cusco. The city ofCusco, which contains nearly 50,000 inhabitants,was the capital of the empire of the Incas, andthe ruins of the Temple of the Sun still bear marksof its former splendour. Two ancient Peruvianroads lead from Cusco to Quito, in no respect infe-rior to the old Roman roads : that over the mountain

K 2


plains is higher than the Peak of Teneriffe". Northfrom Cusco lies the plain of Bombon, which assumesthe bleak and dismal character common to the miningdistricts. I t is 14,000 feet above the sea, andonly 18 miles wide between the Cordilleras thatbound its sides, and which send their streams into theLake of Lauri or Laurichoco, the source of the riverof the Amazons. There are many small lakes onthe table-lands and high valleys of the Andes, someeven within the range of perpetual snow. Theyare very cold and unfathomably deep, often of thepurest sea-green colour, probably the craters of oldvolcanoes.

The crest of the Ancles is split into three rowsof mountains running from south to north fromthe transverse group of Pasco and Huanuco, whichshuts in the valley of Bombon between the 11thand 10th parallels of south latitude: that in thecentre separates the wide fertile valley of the upperMaranon from the still richer valley of Huallago.The western chain alone reaches the line of per-petual snow, and no mountain north of this for 400miles to Chimborazo arrives at the snow-line.

North from the group of Loxas, celebrated for itsforests of the cinchona or Peruvian bark tree, thesummit of the Andes spreads into a narrow table-land, which extends 350 miles in the direction of thechain, passing through the republic of the Equatorto the mountain-group of Pastos in New Grenada.I t is hemmed in on each side by Cordilleras ofgigantic size, and divided by the cross ridges of

THE ANDES. 133

the Paramo del Assuay and Chisinche into threeparts, namely, the plains of Cuenca, Tassia, andQuito, by much the greatest. The plain of Cuencais uninteresting, but the plain of Tassia is verymagnificent; the huge dome-shaped Chimborazorises in its eastern Cordillera 21,428 feet above thesea, yet not the highest mountain in the Andes ;and in the same Cordillera are the pyramidal peaksof Illiniza, the wreck of an ancient volcano. Theheight of Illiniza above the Pacific and above thetable-land was measured by the French Academi-cians, and from their measurement they obtained theheight of Quito, and an approximate value of thebarometrical coefficient.- In the western Cordilleralies the ever agitated volcano of Sangay, togetherwith Cotopaxi, the most beautiful of volcanoes,whose cone of dazzling white is six times as higlias that of the Peak of Teneriffe.

The table-land of Quito, one of the largest andfinest in the Andes, is 200 miles long and 30 wide,with an absolute altitude of 10,000 feet, boundedby the most magnificent series of volcanoes andmountains in the New World. A peculiar interestis attached (o two of the many magnificent volca-noes in the parallel Cordilleras that flank it on eachside. In the eastern chain the beautiful snow-cladcone of Cayambe is traversed by the equator, themost remarkable division of the globe; and in thewestern Cordillera the cross still stands on thesummit of Pinchincha, 15,924 feet above the Pacific,which served for a signal to Messieurs Bouguer


and Condamine in the measurement of a degree ofthe meridian.

Some parts of the plain of Quito to the south aresterile, but the soil generally is good, and perpetualspring clothes it with exuberant vegetation. Thecity of Quito, containing 70,000 inhabitants, on theside of Pinchincha, has an absolute height of 9000feet. The city is well built and handsome; thechurches are splendid ; it possesses universities, thecomforts and luxuries of civilized life, in a situationof unrivalled grandeur and beauty. Thus on thevery summit of the Andes there is a world by itself,with its mountains and its valleys, its lakes andrivers, populous towns and cultivated fields. Manymonuments of the Incas are still found in good pre-servation in these plains, where the scenery is mag-nificent ; eleven volcanoes are visible from one spot.Although the Andes are inferior in height to theHimalaya, yet the domes of trachyte, the truncatedcones of the active volcanoes, and the serrated ruinsof those that are extinct, mixed with the bald fea-tures of primary mountains, give an infinitely greatervariety to the scene, while the smoke, and very oftenthe flame, issuing from these regions of perpetualsnow, increase its sublimity. Stupendous as thesemountains appear even from the plains of the table-land, they are merely the inequalities of the tops ofthe Andes, the serrated summit of that mightychain.

Between the large group of Los Pastos, containingseveral active volcanoes, and the group of Los Papos

THE ANDES. 135

in the second degree of north latitude, the table-landis only 6900 feet above the sea; and north of thelatter mountain-knot the crest of the Andes splitsinto three Cordilleras, which meet no more. Themost westerly of these, the continuation of the greatchain, divides the valley of the river Cauca from theGulf of Panama; it is only 5000 feet high, and thelowest of the three. Though but 20 miles broad,it is so steep, and so difficult to pass, that travellerscannot go on mules, but are carried on men'sshoulders ; it is exceedingly rich in gold and platina.The central branch, or Cordillera of Quindici, runsdue north between the Magdalena and Cauca, witha mean height of 10,000 feet, though rising to18,314 feet on the Peak of Tolima. The mosteasterly of the three Cordilleras, called the Sierrade la Summa Paz, spreads out into the table-land ofSanta Fe de Bogota, Tunja, and others, which havean elevation of about 9000 feet, and its precipicesborder the rivers Orinoco and Meta. The tremen-dous crevice of Icononza occurs in the path leadingfrom the city of Santa Fe de Bogota to the banks ofthe Magdalena. It probably was formed by anearthquake, and is like an empty mineral vein, acrosswhich are two natural bridges ; the lowest is com-posed of stones that have been jammed between therocks in their fall. This Cordillera comprises theAndes of Cundinamarca and Merida, and goes north-east through Grenada to the 10th northern parallel,where it joins the coast-chain of Venezuela or Ca-raccas, which runs due east, and ends at Cape Paria


in the Caribbean Sea, or rather at the eastern ex-tremity of the island of Trinidad. This coast-chainis so majestic and beautiful that Baron Humboldtsays it is like the Alps rising out of the sea with-out their snow. The insulated group of SantaMartha, 19,000 feet high, deeply covered withsnow, stands on an extensive plain between thedelta of the Magdalena and the sea-lake of Mara-caybo, and is a landmark to mariners far off in theCaribbean Sea.

The passes over the Chilian Andes are numerous;that of Portilla, leading from St. Jago to Mendoza,is the highest; it crosses two ridges ; the most ele-vated is 14,365 feet above the sea, and vegetationceases far below its summit. Those in Peru arehigher, though none reach the snow-line. In Boliviathe mean elevation of the passes in the western andeastern Cordilleras is 14,892 and 14,422 feet re-spectively : the peaks in the eastern Cordillera arethe highest, but the passes in the western are on themost elevated part of the range, while those in theeastern are on the lowest. That leading from Soratato the auriferous valley of Tipuani is perhaps thehighest in Bolivia. From the total absence of vege-tation and the intense cold it is supposed to be16,000 feet above the Pacific ; those to the north arebut little lower. The pass of Quindiu in Colombia,though only 11,500 feet high, is the most difficultof all across the Andes : but those crossing themountain-knots from one table-land to another arethe most dangerous; for example, that over the

THE ANDES. 137

Paramo del Assuay, in the plain of Quito, wherethe road is nearly as high as Mont Blanc, and tra-vellers not unfrequently perish from cold winds inattempting it.

On the western side of the Andes little or no rainfalls, except at their most southern extremity, andscanty vegetation appears only in spots, or in smallvalleys. Excessive heat and moisture combine tocover the eastern side and its offsets with tangledforests of large trees and dense brushwood. Thisexuberance diminishes as the height increases, till atlast the barren rocks are covered only by snow andglaciers. Nothing can surpass the desolation ofthese elevated regions, where nature has been shakenby terrific convulsions. The dazzling snow fatiguesthe eye; the huge masses of bald rock, the muralprecipices, and the chasms yawning into dark un-known depths, strike the imagination; while thecrash of the avalanche, or the rolling thunder of thevolcano, startles the ear. In the dead of night, whenthe sky is clear and the wind hushed, the hollowmoaning of the volcanic fire fills the Indian withsuperstitious dread in the deathlike stillness ofthese solitudes.

In the very elevated 'plains in the transversegroups, such as that of Bombon, however pure thesky, the landscape is lurid and colourless ; the dark-blue shadows are sharply defined, and from the thin-ness of the air it is hardly possible to make a justestimate of distance. Changes of weather are suddenand violent; clouds of black vapour arise, and are


carried by fierce winds over the barren plains ; snowand hail are driven with irresistible impetuosity;and thunder-storms come on, loud and awful, with-out warning. Notwithstanding the thinness of theair, the crash of the peals is quite appalling, whilethe lightning runs along the scorched grass, andsometimes, issuing from the ground, destroys a teamof mules or a flock of sheep at one flash.*

Currents of warm air are occasionally met withon the crest of the Andes—an extraordinary pheno-menon in such gelid heights, which is not yet ac-counted for: they generally occur two hours aftersunset, are local and narrow, not exceeding a fewfathoms in width; similar to the equally partialblasts of hot air in the Alps. A singular instance,probably of earth-light, occurs in crossing theAndes from Chili to Mendoza: on this rocky scenea peculiar brightness occasionally rests, a kind ofundescribable reddish light, which vanishes duringthe winter rains, and is not perceptible on sunnyclays. Dr. Poeppig ascribes the phenomenon to thedryness of the air ; he was confirmed in his opinionfrom afterwards observing a similar brightness on thecoast of Peru, and it has also been seen in Egypt.

The Andes descend to the eastern plains by aseries of cultivated levels, as those of Tucuman,Salta, and Jujuy, in the republic of La Plata, withmany others. That of Tucuman is 3600 feet abovethe sea, the garden of the republic.

* Dr. Pceppig's ' Travels in South America.'

THE PARIMA. 139

The low lands to the east of the Andes aredivided by the table-lands and mountains of Parimaand Brazil into three parts, of very different aspect—the deserts and pampas of Patagonia and BuenosAyres ; the Silvas, or woody basin of the Amazons ;and the Llanos, or grassy steppes of the Orinoco.The eastern table-lands nowhere exceed 2500 feetof absolute height; and the plains are so low andflat, especially at the foot of the Andes, that arise of 1000 feet in the Atlantic Ocean wouldsubmerge more than half the continent of SouthAmerica.

The system of the Parima is a group of moun-tains scattered over a table-land not more than2000 feet above the sea, which extends 600 or700 miles from east to west, between the riverOrinoco, the Rio Negro, the Amazons, and theAtlantic Ocean. I t is quite unconnected with theAndes, being 80 leagues east from the moun-tains of New Grenada. I t begins 60 or 70 milesfrom the coast of Venezuela, and ascends by foursuccessive terraces to undulating plains which comewithin one or two degrees of the equator, and istwice as long as it is broad.

Seven chains, besides groups of mountains, crossthe table-land from west to east, of which the chiefis the Sierra del Parima. Beginning at the mouth ofthe Meta, it crosses the plains of Esmeralda to theborders of Brazil, whence, under the name of theSierra Pacaraime, it goes to the left bank of theRupuniri, a tributary of the Essequibo; then, bend-


ing to the south, it runs in a tortuous line betweenBrazil and Guiana to the Atlantic. This chain,not more than 600 feet high, is everywhere escarped,and forms the watershed between the tributaries ofthe Amazons and those of the Orinoco, the Esse-quibo, and the rivers of Guiana. The Orinoco riseson the northern side of the Sierra del Parima, andin its circuitous course over the plains of Esmeraldait breaks through the western extremity of thatchain in two places, 12 leagues asunder, where itdashes with violence against the transverse shelvingrocks and dykes, forming the splendid series ofrapids and cataracts of Maypures and Atures, fromwhence the Parima Mountains have got the name ofthe Cordillera of the cataracts of the Orinoco. Thechain is of granite, which forms the banks and fillsthe bed of the river, covered with luxuriant tropicalvegetation, especially palm-forests. In the districtof the Upper Orinoco, near Charichana, there is agranite rock which emits musical sounds at sunrise,like the notes of an organ, occasioned by the differ-ence of temperature of the external air and thatwhich fills the deep narrow crevices with which therock is everywhere torn. Something of the samekind occurs at Mount Sinai.

The other parallel chains that extend over thetable land in Venezuela and Guiana are separatedby flat savannahs, generally barren in the dry season,but after the rains covered with a carpet of emerald-green grass, often six feet high, mixed with flowers.The vegetation in these countries is splendid beyond

THE PARIMA. 141

imagination : the regions of the Upper Orinoco andRio Negro, and of almost all the mountains andbanks of rivers in Guiana, are clothed with majesticand impenetrable forests, whose moist and hotrecesses are the abode of the singular and beautifulrace of the Orchidese and tangled creepers of manykinds.

Although all the mountains of the system of Pa-rima are wild and rugged, they are not high; theinaccessible peak of the Cerro Duida, which risesinsulated 7155 feet above the plain of Esmeralda, isthe culminating point, and the highest mountain inSouth America east of the Andes.

The fine savannahs of the Eupununi were thecountry of romance in the days of Queen Elizabeth.South of the Pacaraime, near an inlet of the river,the far-famed city of Manoa was supposed to stand,the object of the unfortunate expedition of SirWalter Raleigh ; about 11 miles south-west ofwhich is situated the Lake Amucu, " the GreatLake with golden banks,"—great only during theperiodical floods.

On the southern side of the basin of the riverAmazons lies the table-land of Brazil, nowheremore than 2500 feet high, which occupies half ofthat empire, together with part of the Argentine Re-public and Uruguay Orientale. Its form is a tri-angle, whose apex is at the confluence of the riversMarmora and Beni, and its base extends, near theshore of the Atlantic, from the mouth of the Rio de laPlata to within three degrees of the equator. It is


difficult to define the limits of this vast territory,but some idea may be formed of it by following thedirection of the rapids and cataracts of the rivers de-scending from it to the plains around. Thus a linedrawn from the fall of the river Tocantines, in 3°30' S. lat., to the cataracts of the Madiera, in theeighth degree of south latitude, will nearly mark itsnorthern boundary : from thence the line would runS.W. to the junction of the Marmora and Beni; then,turning to the S.E. along the Serro dos Paricis, itwould proceed south to the cataract of the Parana,called the Sete Quedas, in 24° 30' S. lat. ; andlastly, from thence, by the great falls of the riverIguassu, to the Morro de Santa Martha, at themouth of the Rio de la Plata-

Chains of mountains, nearly parallel, extend fromsouth-west to north-east, 700 miles along the baseof the triangle, with a breadth of about 400 miles.Of these the Sierra do Mar, or the " coast-chain,"reaches from the river Uruguay to Cape SanRoque, never more distant than 20 miles from theAtlantic, except to the south of the bay of Santos,where it is 80. Offsets diverge to the right and left:the granite peak of Corcovedo, in the bay of Rio deJaneiro, 2306 feet high, is the end of one. Theparallel chain of Espenhaco, beginning near thetown of San Paolo, and forming the western bound-ary of the basin of the Rio San Francisco, is thehighest in Brazil, one of its mountains being 8426feet above the sea. All the mountains in Brazilhave a general tendency from S.W. to N.E., except

MOUNTAINS OF BRAZIL. 143

the transverse chain of Sierra das Vertentes, whichbegins 60 miles south of Villa Rica, and runsin a tortuous line to its termination near thejunction of the Marmora and Beni, in 11° S. lat.It forms the watershed of the tributaries of theSan Francesco and Amazons on the north, andthose of the Rio de la Plata on the south ; itsgreatest height is 3500 feet above the sea, but itswestern part, the Sierra Paricis, is merely a succes-sion of detached hills. This chain, the coast-chainof Venezuela and the mountains of Parima, are theonly ranges on the continent of America that do notentirely, or in some degree, lie in the direction ofthe meridians.

Magnificent forests of tall trees, bound togetherby tangled creeping and parasitical plants, clothethe declivities of the mountains, and line the bordersof the Brazilian rivers, where the soil is rich andthe verdure brilliant. Many of the plains on thetable-land bear a coarse nutritious grass after therains only ; but vast undulating tracts are alwaysverdant with excellent pasture, intermixed withfields of corn : some parts are bare sand and rolledquartz ; and the Campas Paricis, north of the SierraVestentes, in Matto Grasso, is a sandy desert of un-known extent, similar to the Great Gobi on thetable-land of Tibet.

( 144 )

CHAPTER IX.

THE LOW LANDS OF SOUTH AMERICA—DESERT OF PATAGONIA

—THE PAMPAS OF BUENOS AYRES—THE SILVAS OF THE

AMAZONS—THE LLANOS OF THE ORINOCO AND VENEZUELA

GEOLOGICAL NOTICE.

THE southern plains are the most barren of thethree great tracts of American low lands ; theystretch from Terra del Fuego over 27 degreesof latitude, or 1900 miles, nearly to Tucumanand the mountains of Brazil. Palms grow atone end, deep snow covers the other many monthsin the year. This enormous plain, of 1,620,000square miles begins on the eastern part of Terradel Fuego, which is a flat covered with trees, andtherefore superior to its continuation on the conti-nent through eastern Patagonia, which, for 800miles from the land's end to beyond the Rio Colo-rado, is a desert of shingle. It is occasionally diversi-fied by huge boulders, tufts of brown grass, lowbushes armed with spines, brine lakes, incrustationsof salt white as snow, and by black basaltic plat-forms, like plains of iron, at the foot of the Andes,barren as the rest. Eastern Patagonia, however, isnot one universal flat, but a succession of shinglyhorizontal plains at higher and higher levels, sepa-rated by long lines of cliffs or escarpments, the gableends of the tiers or plains. The ascent is small, for

THE PAMPAS. 145

even at the foot of the Andes the highest of theseplatforms is only 3000 feet above the ocean. Theplains are here and there intersected by a ravine ora stream, the waters of which do not fertilize theblighted soil. The transition from intense heat tointense cold is rapid, and piercing- winds often rushin hurricanes over these deserts, shunned even bythe Indian, except when he crosses them to visitthe tombs of his fathers. The shingle ends a fewmiles to the north of the Rio Colorado: there thered calcareous earth of the Pampas begins, mono-tonously covered with coarse tufted grass, withouta tree or bush. This country, nearly as level as thesea, and without a stone, extends almost to the table-land of Brazil, and for 1000 miles between theAtlantic and the Andes, interrupted only at vastdistances by a solitary umbu, the only tree of thissoil, rising like a great landmark. This wide space,though almost destitute of water, is not all of thesame description. In the Pampas of Buenos Ayresthere are four distinct regions. For 180 miles westfrom Buenos Ayres they are covered with thistlesand lucern of the most vivid green so long as themoisture from the rain lasts. In spring the verdurefades, and a month afterwards the thistles shoot up10 feet high, so dense and so protected by spinesthat they are impenetrable. During summer thedried stalks are broken by the wind, and the lucernagain spreads freshness over the ground. The Pam-pas for 430 miles west of this region is a thicket oflong tufted luxuriant grass, intermixed with gaudy

gVOL. I.


flowers, affording inexhaustible pasture to thousandsof horses and cattle; this is followed by a tract ofswamps and bogs, to which succeeds a region ofravines and stones, and, lastly, a zone, reaching tothe Andes, of thorny bushes and dwarf trees in onedense thicket. The flat plains in Entre Rios inUruguay, those of Santa Fe, and a great part ofCordova and Tucuman, are of sward, with cattle-farms. The banks of the Parana, and other tribu-taries of the La Plata, are adorned with an infinitevariety of tropical productions, especially the grace-ful tribe of palms; and the river islands are brightwith orange-groves. A desert of sand, called IIGran Chaco, exists west of the Paraguay, the vege-table produce of which is confined to varieties of thealoe and cactus tribes, the last the food of the cochi-neal insect, which forms a valuable article of com-merce. Adjoining this desert are the unknownregions of the Chiquitos and Moxos, covered withforests and jungle.

The Pampas of Buenos Ay res, 1000 feet abovethe sea, sinks to its level along the foot of the Andes,where the streams from the mountains collect inlarge lakes, swamps, lagoons of prodigious size, andwide-spreading salines. The swamp or lagoon ofYbera, of 1000 square miles, is entirely covered withaquatic plants. These swamps are swollen to thou-sands of square miles by the annual floods of therivers, which also inundate the Pampas, leaving afertilizing coat of mud. Multitudes of animalsperish in the floods, and the drought that sometimes

SILVAS OF THE AMAZONS. 147

succeeds is more fatal. Between the years 1830 and1832 two millions of cattle died from want of food.Millions of animals are sometimes destroyed by casualand dreadful conflagrations in these countries, whencovered with dry grass and thistles.

The Silvas of the river of the Amazons, lying inthe centre of the continent, form the second divisionof the South American low lands. This country ismore uneven than the Pampas, and the vegetationis so dense that it can only be penetrated by sailingup the river or its tributaries. The forests not onlycover the basin of the Amazons, but also its limitingmountain-chains, the Sierra Vertentes and Parima;so that the whole forms an area of woodland morethan six times the size of France, lying between theeighteenth parallel of south latitude and the seventhof north ; consequently intertropical and traversedby the equator. There are some marshy savannahsbetween the third and fourth degrees of north lati-tude, and some grassy steppes south of the Pacaraimchain ; but they are insignificant compared withthe Silvas, which extend 1500 miles along the river,varying in breadth from 350 to 800 miles, and pro-bably more. According to Baron Humboldt, thesoil, enriched for ages by the spoils of the forest,consists of the richest mould. The heat is suffocatingin the deep and dark recesses of these primevalwoods, where not a breath of air penetrates, andwhere, after being drenched by the periodical rains,the damp is so excessive that a blue mist rises inthe early morning among the huge stems of the trees,

L 2


and envelops the entangled creepers stretching frombough to bough. A deathlike stillness prevailsfrom sunrise to sunset; then the thousands of ani-mals that inhabit these forests join in one loud dis-cordant roar, not continuous, but in bursts. Thebeasts seem to be periodically and unanimously roused,by some unknown impulse, till the forest rings inuniversal uproar. Profound silence prevails at mid-night, which is broken at the dawn of morning byanother general roar of the wild chorus. Night-ingales, too, have their fits of silence and song: aftera pause, they

" all burst forth in choral minstrelsy,As if some sudden gale had swept at onceA hundred airy harps."*

The whole forest often resounds, when the animals,startled from their sleep, scream in terror at thenoise made by bands of its inhabitants flying fromsome night-prowling foe. Their anxiety and terrorbefore a thunder-storm is excessive, and all natureseems to partake in the dread. The tops of thelofty trees rustle ominously, though not a breath ofair agitates them; a hollow whistling in the highregions of the atmosphere comes as a warning fromthe black floating vapour ; midnight darkness enve-lops the ancient forests, which soon after groan andcreak with the blast of the hurricane. The gloomis rendered still more hideous by the vivid lightningand the stunning crash of thunder. Even fishesare affected with the general consternation ; for in a

* Wordsworth.

THE LLANOS. 149

few minutes the Amazons rages in waves like astormy sea.

The Llanos of the Orinoco and Venezuela, coveredwith long grass, form the third department of SouthAmerican low lands, and occupy 153,000 squaremiles between the deltas of the Orinoco and the riverCoqueta, flat as the surface of the sea; frequentlythere is not an eminence a foot high in 270 squaremiles. They are twice as long as they are broad ;and, as the wind blows constantly from the east, theclimate is the more ardent the farther west. Thesesteppes for the most part are destitute of trees orbushes, yet in some places they are dotted with themauritia and other palm-trees. Flat as these plainsare, there are in some places two kinds of inequali-ties : one consists of banks or shoals of grit or com-pact limestone, five or six feet high, perfectly levelfor several leagues, and imperceptible except on theiredges ; the other inequality can only be detected bythe barometer or levelling instruments; it is calleda Mesa, and is an eminence rising imperceptibly tothe heigfht of some fathoms. Small as the elevationis, a mesa forms the watershed, from S.W- to N.E.,between the affluents of the Orinoco and the streamsflowing to the northern coast of Terra Firma. Inthe wet season, from April to the end of October,the tropical rains pour down in torrents, and hun-dreds of square miles of the Llanos are inundated bythe floods of the rivers. The water is sometimes12 feet deep in the hollows, in which so manyhorses and other animals perish that the ground


smells of musk, an odour peculiar to many SouthAmerican quadrupeds. From the flatness of thecountry, too, the waters of some affluents of theOrinoco are driven backwards by the floods of thatriver, especially when aided by the wind, and formtemporary lakes. When the waters subside thesesteppes, manured by the sediment, are mantled withverdure, and produce ananas with occasional groupsof palm-trees, and mimosas skirt the rivers. Whenthe dry weather returns, the grass is burnt to powder,the air is filled with dust raised by currents occa-sioned by difference of temperature, even where thereis no wind. If by any accident a spark of fire fallson the scorched plains, a conflagration spreads fromriver to river, destroying every animal, and leavesthe clayey soil sterile for years, till vicissitudes ofweather crumble the brick-like surface into earth.

The Llanos lie between the equator and the Tropicof Cancer; consequently the mean annual tempera-ture is about 84° of Fahrenheit. The heat is mostintense during the rainy season, when tremendousthunder-storms are of common occurrence.

GEOLOGY OF SOUTH AMERICA.

T H E most remarkable circumstance in the geolo-gical arrangement of South America is the vast butpartial development of volcanic force, which is con-fined to the chain of the Andes, and even in someparts only to the western Cordillera, while not atrace of it is to be found either on the great plains

GEOLOGY OF SOUTH AMERICA. 151

to the east, or on the table-lands which divide them.The actual vents occur in linear groups. The mostsouthern of these extends from Yntales in Patagoniato the volcanoes of central Chili, a distance of 800miles : the second volcanic line, occupying 600miles of latitude, lies between Araquipo and Patas :*the third extends over 300 miles between Riobambaand Popayan. That these groups of active volcanoesare connected there can be little doubt, as they areonly separated by a few hundred miles; and thusthere is a line of volcanic action, 1700 miles long,entirely confined to the Andes, to which the volcanicislands of Juan Fernandez and the Galapagos forma parallel line.

Granite, which seems to be the base of the wholecontinent, is widely spread to the east and south: itappears in Terra del Fuego and in the PatagonianAndes abundantly and at great elevations; but itcomes into view so rarely in the other parts of thechain that Baron Humboldt says a person mighttravel years in the Ancles of Peru and Quito withoutfalling in with i t : he never saw it at a greater heightabove the sea than 11,500 feet. Gneiss is here andthere associated with the granite, but mica-schist isby much the most common of the crystalline rocks.Quartz is also much developed, generally mixed withmica, and rich in gold, mercury, specular iron, andsulphur. It sometimes extends several leagues inthe western declivities of Peru, 6000 feet thick. Red

* Mr. Darwin.


sandstone, of vast dimensions, and of different geolo-gical periods, occurs in the Andes, and on the table-land east of them, where in some places, as in Colom-bia, it spreads over thousands of miles to the shoresof the Atlantic. I t is widely extended at altitudesof 10,000 and 12,000 feet; for example, on thetable-lands of Tarqui and Cuenca. Coal is some-times associated with it, and is found at Huenca inPeru 14,750 feet above the sea.

Porphyry abounds all over the Andes, from Pata-gonia to Colombia, at every elevation, on the slopesand summits of the mountains, sometimes 19,000feet thick, but not uniformly of the same age ornature. The variety of most frequent occurrence isrich in metals, while another is destitute of them.The bare and precipitous porphyry rocks give greatvariety to the colouring of the Andes, especially inChili, where purple, tile-red, and brown are con-trasted with the snow on the summit of the chain.*

Trachyte is almost as abundant as porphyry. Manyof the loftiest parts and all the great dome-shapedmountains in the Andes are formed of it. Massesof this rock, from 14,000 to 18,000 feet thick, areseen in Chimborazo and Pinchincha. Prodigiousquantities of volcanic products, lava, tufa, and obsi-dian, occur on the western face of the Andes, wherevolcanoes are active. On the eastern side there arenone. This is especially the case in that part of thechain lying between the equator and Chili. The

* Dr. Pceppig.


Bolivian Cordilleras, which are the boundary of thevalley of Desaguadero, furnish a striking example.The Cordillera of the coast is entirely composed ofobsidian, trachyte, and tufa, while the eastern Cor-dillera consists of syenite, mica-schist, porphyry,and sandstone; marl, containing gypsum, ooliticlimestone, and rock salt, of the most beautiful colours.Towards Chili and throughout the Chilian range thecase is different, because active volcanoes are therein the centre of the chain.

Sea-shells of different geological periods are foundat various elevations, which shows that many up-heavings and subsidences have taken place in thechain of the Andes, especially at its southern extre-mity. Stems of large trees, which Mr. Darwin foundin a fossil state in the Upsallata range, a collateralbranch of the Chilian Andes, now 700 miles distantfrom the Atlantic, exhibit a remarkable example ofsuch vicissitudes. These trees, with the volcanicsoil on which they had grown, had sunk from thebeach to the bottom of a deep ocean, from which,after five alternations of sedimentary deposits anddeluges of submarine lava of prodigious thickness,the whole mass was raised up, and now forms theUpsallata chain. Subsequently, by the wearing ofstreams', the embedded trunks have been broughtinto view in a silicified state, projecting from thesoil on which they grew—now solid rock.

" Vast and scarcely comprehensible as suchchanges must ever appear, yet they have all occurred


within a period recent when compared with thehistory of the Cordillera; and the Cordillera itselfis absolutely modern, compared with many of thefossiliferous strata of Europe and America."*

From the quantity of shingle and sand on the val-leys in th,e lower ridges, as well as at altitudes from7000 to 9000 feet above the present level of the sea,it appears that the whole area of the Chilian Andeshas been raised by a gradual motion ; and the coastis now rising by the same imperceptible degrees,though it is sometimes suddenly elevated by a suc-cession of small upheavings of a few feet by earth-quakes, similar to that which shook the continentfor a thousand miles on the 20th of February;

1835.On the eastern side of the Andes the land from

Tera del Fuego to the Rio de la Plata has been raiseden masse by one great elevating force, acting equallyand imperceptibly for 2000 miles, within the periodof the shell-fish now existing, which in many partsof these plains even still retain their colours. Thegradual upward movement was interrupted by atleast eight long periods of rest, marked by the edgesof the successive plains, which, extending from southto north, had formed so many lines of sea-coast, asthey rose higher and higher between the Atlanticand the Andes. It appears, from the shingle andfossil shells found on both sides of the Cordillera,

* Darwin's Journal of Travels in South America.


that the whole south-western extremity of the con-tinent has been rising slowly for a long time, andindeed the whole Andean chain.

The instability of the southern part of the conti-nent is less astonishing if it be considered that atthe time of the earthquake of 1835 the volcanoes inthe Chilian Andes were in eruption contempora-neously for 720 miles in one direction and 400 inanother; so that in all probability there was a sub-terranean lake of burning lava below this end of thecontinent twice as large as the Black Sea.*

The terraced plains of Patagonia, which extendhundreds of miles along the coast, are tertiary strata,not in basins, but in one great deposit, above whichlies a thick stratum of white pumaceous substance,extending at least 500 miles, a tenth part of whichconsists of marine infusoria. Over the whole liesthe shingle already mentioned, spread over thecoast for 700 miles in length, with a mean breadthof 200 miles, and 50 feet thick. These myriadsof pebbles, chiefly of porphyry, have been tornfrom the rocks of the Andes, and water-worn, ata period subsequent to the deposition of the tertiarystrata—a period of incalculable duration. Allthe plains of Terra del Fuego and Patagonia, onboth sides of the Andes, are strewed with hugeboulders, transported by icebergs, which had de-scended to lower latitudes in ancient times than they

* Darwin's Journal of Travels in South America.


do now—observations of great interest, which we

owe to Mr. Darwin.The stunted vegetation of these sterile plains was

sufficient to nourish large animals of the pachyder-mata tribe, now extinct, even at a period when thepresent shell-fish of the Patagonian seas existed.

The Pampas of Buenos Ayres are entirely alluvia],the deposit of the Rio de la Plata. Granite prevailsto the extent of 2000 miles along the coast of Brazil,and with syenite forms the base of the table-land.The superstructure of the latter consists of metamor-phic and old igneous rocks, sandstone, clay-slate,limestone, in which are large caverns with bones ofextinct animals, and alluvial soil. Gold is found inthe channels of the rivers, and no country is so richin diamonds.

The fertile soil of the Silvas has travelled fromafar. Washed down from the Andes, it has beengradually deposited and manured by the decay of athousand forests. Granite again appears in morethan its usual ruggedness in the table-land andmountains of the Parima system. The sandstone ofthe Andes is found there also in a chain 7300 feethigh; and on the plains of Esmeralda it caps thegranite of the solitary prism-shaped Duido, the cul-minating mountain of the Parima system. Lime-stone appears in the Brigantine or Cocallar, the mostsouthern of the three ranges of the coast-chain ofVenezuela ; the other two are of granite, metamor-phic rocks, and crystalline schists, torn by earth-

GEOLOGY OR SOUTH AMERICA. 157

quakes and worn by the sea, which has deeply in-dented that coast. The chain of islands in the Spanishmain is merely the wreck of a more northern ridge,broken up into detached masses by these irresistiblepowers.

( 158 )

CHAPTER X.

CENTRAL AMERICA—WEST INDIAN ISLANDS—GEOLOGICAL

NOTICE.

TAKING the natural divisions of the continent aloneinto consideration, Central America may be regardedas lying between the 7th and 20th parallels of northlatitude, and consequently in a tropical climate.The narrow tortuous strip of land which unites thecontinents of North and South America stretchesfrom S.E. to N."W. about 1000 miles, varying inbreadth from 30 miles to 300 or 400.

As a regular chain, the Andes terminate suddenlyat the plain of Panama, but as a mass of high landthey continue through Central America and Mexico,in an irregular mixture of table-lands and mountains.These table-lands, however, differ from those in theAndes of South America, inasmuch as they arenot bounded on each side by Cordilleras followingthe direction of the chain, but are traversed byranges running over them in all directions, or studdedby mountains. The mass of high land which formsthe central ridge of the country, and the watershedbetween the two oceans, is very steep on its westernside, and runs near the coast of the Pacific, whereCentral America is narrow; but to the north, whereit becomes wider, the high land recedes to a greater

CENTRAL AMERICA. 159

distance from the shore than the Andes do in any-other part between Cape Horn and Mexico.

The plains of Panama, very little raised above thesea, but in some parts studded with hills, follow thedirection of the isthmus for 280 miles, and end atthe Bay of Parita. From thence a mass, about 3000feet high, of forest-covered table-lands and compli-cated mountains extends through Veragua and PortaRica to the Lake of Nicaragua. The plain of Nica-ragua, together with its lake, occupies an area of30,000 square miles, and forms the second break inthe great Andean chain. The lake is only 128 feetabove the Pacific, from which it is separated by aline of active volcanoes. The river San Juan deNicaragua flows from its eastern end into the Carib-bean Sea, and its northern extremity is connectedwith the smaller lake of Managua by the river Pana-laya. By this water-line it has been projected tounite the two seas. The high land begins again, afteran interval of 170 miles, with the Mosquito countryand Honduras, which mostly consist of table-lands,high mountains, and some volcanoes.

The broad elevated belt of Guatemala liesbetween the Isthmus of Chiquimala and that ofTehuantepec. I t spreads out to the east and formsthe high but narrow table-land on the peninsula ofYucatan, which terminates at Cape Catoch, andwhich is bounded by high mountains and terracesalono- the Gulf of Honduras. The table-land ofGuatimala consists of undulating verdant plains ofgreat extent, of the absolute height of 5000 feet,


fragrant with flowers. In the southern part of thetable-land the cities of Old and New Guatemala aresituate, 12 miles apart. The portion of the plain onwhich the new citv stands is bounded on the westby the three volcanoes of Pacaya, del Fuego, andd'Agua ; these, rising from 7000 to 10,000 feet abovethe plain, lie close to the new city on the west, andform a scene of wonderful boldness and beauty. TheVolcano de Agua, at the foot of which Old Guatemalastands, is a perfect cone, verdant to its summit, whichoccasionally pours forth torrents of boiling waterand stones. The old city has been twice destroyedby it, and is now nearly deserted on account ofviolent earthquakes. The Volcano del Fuego gene-rally emits smoke from one of its peaks, and thevolcano de Pacayo is only occasionally active. Thewide grassy plains are cut by deep valleys to thenorth, where the high land of Guatemala ends inparallel ridges of mountains, called the Cerro Pelado,which run from east to west along the 94th meridian,filling half the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, whichis 140 miles broad, and unites the table-land ofGuatemala with that of Mexico.

Though there are large savannahs on the highplains of Guatemala, there are also magnificentprimeval forests, as the name of the country implies,Guatemala, in the Mexican language, signifying aplace covered with trees. The banks of the Rio dela Papian, or Usumasinta, which rises in the Alpinelake of Lacandon and flows over the table-land tothe Gulf of Mexico, are beautiful beyond description.

CENTRAL AMERICA. 161

The coasts of Central America are generallynarrow, and in some places the mountains and hicrhlands come close to the water's edge. The sugar-cane is indigenous, and on the low lands of theeastern coast all the ordinary produce of the WestIndian Islands is raised, besides much that is peculiarto the country.

As the climate is cool on the high lands, thevegetation of the temperate zone is in perfection.On the low lands, as in other countries whereheat and moisture are in excess, and where natureis for the most part undisturbed, vegetation isvigorous to rankness; forests of gigantic timberseek the free air above an impenetrable undergrowth,and the mouths of the rivers are dense masses ofjungle with mangroves, and reeds 100 feet high : yetdelightful savannahs vary the scene, and woodedmountains dip into the water.

Nearly all the coast of the Pacific is skirted by analluvial plain, of small width, and generally verydifferent in character from that on the Atlantic side.In a line along the western side of the table-landand the mountains, there is a continued successionof volcanos, at various distances from the shore, andat various heights, on the declivity of the table-land.It seems as if a great crack or fissure had been pro-duced in the earth's surface, along the junction ofthe mountains and the shore, through which theinternal fire had found a vent. There are more than20 active volcanos in succession, between the 10thand 20th parallels of north latitude, some higher

VOL. I. M


than the mountains of the central ridge, and severalsubject to violent eruptions.

The Colombian Archipelago, or West IndianIslands, which may be regarded as the wreck of a,submerged part of the continent of South and CentralAmerica, consists of three distinct groups, namely,the Lesser Antilles, or Caribbean Islands, the GreaterAntilles, and the Bahama or Lucay Islands. Some ofthe Lesser Antilles are flat, but their general characteris bold, with a single mountain or group of moun-tains in the centre, which slopes to the sea all around,more precipitously on the eastern side, which is ex-posed to the force of the Atlantic current. Trinidadis the most southerly of a line of magnificent islands,which form a semicircle, enclosing the Caribbean Sea,with its convexity facing the east. The row is singleto the island of Guadaloup, where it splits into twochains, known as the Windward and Leeward Islands.Trinidad, Tobago, St. Lucia, and Dominica, are par-ticularly mountainous, and the mountains are cut bydeep narrow ravines, or gullies, covered by ancientforests. The volcanic islands, which are mostly inthe single part of the chain, have conical mountainsbristled with rocks of a still more rugged form;but almost all the islands of the Lesser Antilles havea large portion of excellent vegetable soil in a highstate of cultivation. Most of them are surrounded bycoral reefs, which render navigation dangerous, andthere is little intercourse between these islands, andstill less with the Greater Antilles, on account of theprevailing winds and currents, which make it difficult

WEST INDIAN ISLANDS. 163

to return. The Lesser Antilles terminate with thegroup of the Virgin Islands, which are small andflat, some only a few feet above the sea, and most ofthem are mere coral rocks.

The four islands which form the group of theGreater Antilles, are the largest and finest in thearchipelago. Porto Rico, Haiti, and Jamaica, sepa-rated from the Virgin Islands by a narrow channel,lie in a line parallel to the coast-chain of Venezuela,from east to west; while Cuba, by a serpentine bend,separates the Caribbean Sea, or Sea of the Antilles,rom the Gulf of Mexico. Porto Rico is 140 miles

long and 36 broad, with wooded mountains passingthrough its centre nearly from east to west, whichfurnish abundance of water. There are extensivesavannahs in the interior, and very rich soil on thenorthern coast, but the climate is unhealthy.

Haiti, 450 miles long and 110 broad, has a groupof mountains in its centre, the highest of which is9000 feet above the sea. Chains diverge from this

nucleus to the remotest parts of the island, so thatthere is a great proportion of high land. The moun-tains are susceptible of cultivation nearly to the sum-mits, and they are clothed with undisturbed tropicalforests. The extensive plains are well watered, andthe soil though not deep is productive.

Jamaica, the most valuable of the British posses-sions in the West Indies, has an area of 4256 squaremiles, of which 110,000 acres are cultivated chiefly assugar-plantations. The principal chain of the BlueMountains lies in the centre of the island, from east

M 2


to west, 5000 or 6000 feet above the sea, with sosharp a crest that in some places it is only four yardsacross. The offsets from it cover all the easternpart of the island; some of them are 7000 feethigh. The more elevated ridges are flanked by lowerranges, descending to verdant savannahs. The escarp-ments are wild, the declivities steep, and mingledwith stately forests. The valleys are very narrow,and not more than a twentieth part of the island islevel ground. There are many small rivers, and thecoast-line is 500 miles long, with at least 30 goodharbours. The mean summer-heat is 80° of Fah-renheit, and that of winter 75°. The plains are oftenunhealthy, but the air on the mountains is salubrious;fever has never prevailed at the elevation of 2500feet.

Cuba, the largest island in the Colombian Archi-pelago, has an area of 42,212 square miles, and 200miles of coast, but so beset with coral reefs, sand-banks and rocks, that only a third of it is accessible-Its mountains, which attain the height of 8000 feet,occupy the centre, and fill the eastern part of theisland, in a great longitudinal line. No island inthese seas is more important with regard to situationand natural productions ; and although much of thelow ground is swampy and unhealthy, there are vastsavannahs, and about a seventh part of the island iscultivated.

The Bahama Islands are the least valuable andleast interesting part of the Archipelago. Thegroup consists of about 500 islands, many of them

GEOLOGICAL NOTICE. 165

mere rocks, lying east from Cuba and the coast ofFlorida. Twelve are rather large, and cultivated ;and though arid, they produce Campeche wood andmahogany. The most intricate labyrinth of shoalsand reefs, chiefly of corals, madrepores, and sand, en-compass these islands; some of them rise to the sur-face, and are adorned with groves of palm-trees.The Great Bahama Island is the first part of theNew World on which Columbus landed; the nextwas Haiti, where his ashes rest.

The geology of Central America is little known ;nevertheless it appears, from the confused mixtureof table-lands and mountain-chains in all directions,that the subterraneous forces must have acted morepartially and irregularly than either in South orNorth America. Granite, gneiss, and mica-slateform the substrata of the country; but the abun-dance of igneous rocks bears witness to strong vol-canic action, both in ancient and in modern times,which still maintains its activity in the volcanicgroups of Guatemala and Mexico.

From the identity of the fossil remains of extinctquadrupeds, there is every reason to believe that theWest Indian Archipelago was once part of SouthAmerica, and that the rugged and tortuous jsthmusof Central America, and the serpentine chain ofislands winding from Cumana to the peninsula ofFlorida, are but the shattered remains of an un-broken continent. The powerful volcanic action inCentral America and Mexico, the volcanic natureof many of the West Indian Islands, and the still-


existing fire in St. Vincent's, together with the tre-mendous earthquakes to which the whole region issubject, render it more than probable that the Carib-bean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico are one great areaof subsidence, which possibly has been increased bythe erosion of the Gulf-stream and.ground-swell—atemporary current of great impetuosity, commonamong the West Indian Islands from October toMay.

The subsidence of this extensive area must havebeen very great, since the water is of profound depthbetween the islands, and it must have taken placeafter the destruction of the great quadrupeds, andconsequently at a very recent geological period.The elevation of the table-land of Mexico may havebeen a contemporaneous event. The action inthe Colombian Archipelago is now, however, in acontrary direction, as the bed of the ocean is risingthere. The line of volcanic islands begins with St.Vincent's, and ends with Guadaloup ; the island ofSt. Eustasius in the Leeward range is also volcanic.The Windward and Bahama Islands are of calcareousand coral rocks. The Greater Antilles are bothcrystalline and calcareous in their principal moun-tain-chains, which are all parallel to the great chainof Venezuela, with the exception of Cuba, where themountains diverge from a central nucleus to its ex-tremities : there is a region of serpentine, rich in mi-nerals, in one part of the island, with an extensiveftrmation of columnar white marble adjacent to it.

( 167 )

CHAPTER XI.

NORTH AMERICA—TABLE-LAND AND MOUNTAINS OF MEXICO

THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS THE MARITIME CHAIN AND

MOUNTAINS OF RUSSIAN AMERICA.

ACCORDING to the natural division of the continent,North America begins about the 20th degree ofnorth latitude, and terminates in the Arctic Ocean.It is longer than South America, but the irregularityof its outline renders it impossible to estimate itsarea. Its greatest length is about 3100 miles, andits breadth, at the widest part, is 3500 miles.

The general structure of North America is stillmore simple than that of the southern part of thecontinent. The table-land of Mexico and the RockyMountains, which are the continuation of the highland of the Andes, run along the western side, but ata greater distance from the Pacific; and the im-mense plains to the east are divided longitudinallyby the Alleghanny Mountains, which stretch fromthe Carolinas to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, parallelto the Atlantic, and at no great distance from it.Although the general direction of the two chains isfrom south to north, yet, as they maintain a degreeof parallelism to the two coasts, they diverge towardsthe north, one inclining towards the north-west, andthe other towards the north-east. The long narrowplain between the Atlantic and the Alleghannies is


divided, throughout its length, by a line of cliffs notmore than 200 or 300 feet above the Atlantic plain—the outcropping edge of the Second Terrace, or At-lantic Slope, whose rolling surface goes west to thefoot of the mountains.

An enormous table-land occupies the greater partof Mexico, or Anahuac. I t begins at the Isthmus ofTehuantepec, and extends north-west to the 42nd pa-rallel of north latitude, a distance of about 1600 miles,which is nearly equal to the distance from the northextremity of Scotland to Gibraltar. I t is narrowtowards the south, but expands towards the north-westtill about the latitude of the city of Mexico, whereit attains its greatest breadth of 360 miles, and therealso it is highest. The most easterly part in thatparallel is 7500 feet above the sea, from whence itrises towards the west to the height of 9000 feet atthe city of Mexico, and then gradually diminishes to4000 feet towards the Pacific.

Its height in California is not known, but it stillbears the character of a table-land, and maintains anelevation of 6000 feet along the east side of theSierra Madre, even to the 32nd degree of north la-titude, where it sinks to a lower level before joiningthe Kocky Mountains. The descent from this pla-teau to the low lands is very steep on all sides; onthe east, especially, it is so precipitous that, from adistance, it is like a range of high mountains. Thereare only two carriage-roads to it from the MexicanGulf, by passes 500 miles asunder: one at Xalapa,near Vera Cruz ; the other at Santilla, west of Mon-

TABLE-LAND AND MOUNTAINS. 169

terey. The descent to the shores of the Pacific isalmost equally rapid, and that to the south no less so,where, for 300 miles between the plains of Tehuan-tepec and the Rio Yapez, it presses on the shores ofthe Pacific, and terminates in high mountains, leav-ing only a narrow margin of hilly maritime coast.Where the surface of the table-land is not traversedby mountains it is as level as the ocean. There is acarriage-road over it for 1500 miles, without hills,from the city of Mexico to Santa Fe1.

The southern part of the plateau is divided intofour parts, or distinct plains, surrounded by hills from500 to 1000 feet high. In one of these, the plain ofTolesco, on a small group of islands near the easternbank of the Lake Tetzcuco, and surrounded by awall of porphyritic mountains, stands the city ofMexico, once the capital of the empire of Mon-tezuma, which must have far surpassed the moderncity in extent and splendour, as many remains of itsancient glory testify. It is 9000 feet above the sea,which is the height of Mount St. Bernard.

One of the singular crevices through which theinternal fire finds a vent stretches from the Gulf ofMexico to the Pacific, directly across the table-land,in a line about 16 miles south of the city of Mexico.A very remarkable row of active volcanos occurs alongthis parallel. Turtla, the most eastern of them, isin the 95th degree west longitude, near the MexicanGulf, in a low range of wooded hills. More to thewest the snow-shrouded cone of Orizabo is 17,000feet high ; and its ever-fiery crater, seen like a star


in the darkness of the night, has obtained it the nameof Citlaltepetel, the " Mountain of the Star." Po-pocatepetl, the loftiest mountain in Mexico, 17,884feet above the sea, lies still farther west, and is in astate of constant eruption. A chain of smaller vol-canos unites the three. On the western slope of thetable-land, 36 leagues from the Pacific, stands thevolcanic cone of Jorullo, on a plain 2890 feet abovethe sea. It suddenly appeared and rose 1683 feetabove the plain on the night of the 29th of Sep-tember, 1759. The great cone of Colima, the lastof this volcanic series, stands insulated in the plainof that name, between the western declivity of thetable-land and the Pacific.

A high range of mountains extends along theeastern margin of the table-land to Real de Catorce,and the surface of the high plain is divided into twoparts by the Sierra Madre, which begins at 21 de-grees north latitude; and, after going north about60 miles, its continuity is broken into the insulatedridges of the Sierra Altamina, and the group con-taining the mines of Zacatecas ; it soon after resumesits character of a regular chain, and, with a breadthof 100 miles, proceeds in parallel ridges and longitu-dinal valleys to New Mexico, where it skirts bothbanks of the Rio Bravo del Norte, and joins theSierra Yerde, the most southern part of the RockyMountains, in 40 degrees north latitude.

To the south some points of the Sierra Madre aresaid to be 10,000 feet high, and 4000 above theirbase; and between the parallels of 36 and 42 degrees,

THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 171

where the chain is the watershed between theRio Colorado and the Rio Bravo del Norte, theyare still higher, and perpetually covered with snow.The mountains on the left bank of the last-mentionedriver are the eastern ridges of the Sierra Madre, andcontain the sources of the innumerable affluents ofthe Missouri and other rivers that flow into theMississippi and Mexican Gulf.

Deep cavities, called Barancas, are a characteristicfeature of the table-lands of Mexico. They arelong narrow rents two or three miles in breadth, andmany more in length, often descending 1000 feetbelow the surface of the plain, with a brook or thetributary of some river flowing through them. Theirsides are precipitous and rugged, with overhangingrocks covered with large trees. The intense heatadds to the contrast between these hollows and thebare plains, where the air is more than cool.

Vegetation varies with the elevation ; consequentlythe splendour which adorns the low lands vanisheson the high plains, which, though producing muchgrain and pasture, are often saline, sterile, and tree-less, except in some places, where oaks grow to anenormous size free of underwood.

The Rocky Mountains run 1500 miles, in two pa-rallel chains, from the Sierra Verde to the mouth ofthe Mackenzie River, in the Arctic Ocean, sometimesunited by a transverse ridge. In some places theeastern range rises to the snow-line, and even farabove it, as in Mounts Hooper and Brown, 15,590and 16,000 feet above the sea; but the general ele-


vation is only above the line of trees. The westernrange is not so high till north of the 55 th parallel,where both ranges are of the same height, and fre-quently higher than the snow-line. They are ge-nerally barren, though the transverse valleys havefertile spots with grass, and sometimes trees. Thelong valley between the two rows of the RockyMountains, which is 100 miles wide, must have con-siderable elevation in the south, since the tributariesof the Colombia River descend from it in a series ofrapids and cataracts for nearly 100 miles; and it isprobably still higher towards the sources of thePeace River, where the mountains, only 1500 feetabove it, are perpetually covered with snow. TheSierra Verde is 670 miles from the Pacific; but, asthe coast trends due north to the Sound of Juan deFuca, the western range of the Rocky Mountainsmaintains a distance of 380 miles from the ocean,from that point to the latitude of Behring's Bay in60 degrees north latitude.

Offsets from the Sierra Madre, and the volcanicgroup of Castres Virgines, fill the peninsula of Ca-lifornia, from whence, to the Sound of Juan de Fuca,the Pacific is bordered by snow-clad mountains.Prairies extend between this coast-chain and theRocky Mountains from California to north of theOregon River. The Oregon coast for 200 miles isa mass of undisturbed forest-thickets and marshes,and north from it, with few exceptions, is a moun-tainous region of bold aspect, often reaching abovethe snow-line. The maritime chain of Russian

MARITIME CHAINS. 173

America, of a still more Alpine character, runs duenorth to 60 degrees of north latitude, where MountElias rises to 17,000. The branch which runs west-ward to Bristol Bay has many active volcanos, andso has that which fills the promontory of Alaska.

The archipelagos and islands along the coast,from California to the promontory of Alaska, havethe same bold character as the mainland, and may beregarded as the tops of a submarine chain of table-lands and mountains, which constitute the mostwesterly ridge of the maritime chains. Prince ofWales's Archipelago contains seven active volcanos.

The mountains on the coasts of the Pacific, andthe islands are, in many places, covered with colossalforests, but wide tracts in the south are sandy deserts.

( 174 )

CHAPTER XII.

NORTH AMERICA CONTINUED—THE GREAT CENTRAL PLAINS ORVALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI THE ALLEGHANNY MOUN-TAINS—THE ATLANTIC SLOPE — THE ATLANTIC PLAIN—GEOLOGICAL NOTICE.

T H E great central plain of North America, lyingbetween the Rocky and Alleghanny Mountains, andreaching from the Gulf of Mexico to the ArcticOcean, includes the valleys of the Mississippi, St.Lawrence, Nelson, Churchill, and most of those ofthe Missouri, Mackenzie's, and Coppermine rivers.I t has an area of 3,240,000 square miles, which is240,000 square miles more than the central plain ofSouth America, and about half the size of the greatplain of the Old Continent, which is less fertile; for,although the whole of America is not more thanhalf the size of the Old Continent, it contains at leastas much productive soil.

This plain, 5000 miles long, becomes widertowards the north, and has no elevations, except alow table-land which crosses it at the line of the Ca-nadian lakes and the sources of the Mississippi, andis nowhere above 1500 feet high, and rarely morethan 700. The character of the plain is that ofperfect uniformity, rising by a gentle regular ascentfrom the Gulf of Mexico to the sources of the Mis-sissippi, which river is the great feature of the North

VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 175

American low lands. The ground rises in the sameequable manner from the right bank of the Missis-sippi to the foot of the Rocky Mountains, but itsascent from the left bank to the Alleghannies isbroken into hill and dale, containing the most fertileterritory in the United States. Under so wide arange of latitude the plain embraces a great varietyof soil, climate, and productions ; but, being almostin a state of nature, it is characterized in its middleand southern parts by interminable grassy savannahs,or prairies, and enormous forests; and in the far northby deserts which rival those of Siberia in dreariness.

In the south a sandy desert, 400 or 500 mileswide, stretches along the base of the Rocky Moun-tains to the 41st degree N. lat. The dry plains ofTexas and the upper region of the Arkansas have allthe characteristics of Asiatic table-lands ; more to thenorth the bare, treeless steppes on the high groundsof the far west are burnt up in summer, and frozenin winter by biting blasts from the Rocky Moun-tains ; but the soil improves towards the Mississippi.At its mouth, indeed, there are marshes which cover35,000 square miles, bearing a rank vegetation, andits delta is a labyrinth of streams and lakes, withdense brushwood. There are also large tracts offorest and saline ground, but all the cultivation onthe right bank of the river is along the Gulf ofMexico and in the adjacent provinces, and is en-tirely tropical, consisting of sugar-cane, cotton, andindigo. The prairies, so characteristic of NorthAmerica, then begin.


To the left of the Mississippi these savannahs aresometimes rolling, but oftener level and interminableas the ocean, covered with long rank grass of tendergreen, blended with flowers chiefly of the liliaceouskind, which fill the air with their fragrance. In thesouthern districts they are sometimes interspersedwith groups of magnolia, tulip and cotton-trees; andin the north, oaks and black walnut. These are rareoccurrences, as the prairies may be traversed formany days without finding a shrub, except on thebanks of the streams, which are beautifully fringedwith myrtle, azalea, kalmea, andromeda, and rhodo-dendron. On the wide plains the only objects to beseen are countless herds of wild horses, buffalos anddeer. The country assumes a more severe aspect inhigher latitudes. I t is still capable of producing ryeand barley in the territories of the Assinniboines,and round Lake Winnepeg there are great forests; alow vegetation, with grass, follows, and towards theIcy Ocean the land is barren and covered with nu-merous lakes.

East of the Mississippi there is a magnificent un-dulating country about 300 miles broad, extending1

1000 miles from south to north between that greatriver and the Alleghanny Mountains, mostly coveredwith trees. When America was discovered, one un-interrupted forest spread over the country, from theGulf of St. Lawrence and the Canadian lakes to theGulf of Mexico, and from the Atlantic Ocean itcrossed the Alleghanny Mountains, descended intothe valley of the Mississippi on the north, but in the

PRAIRIES AND PINE-BARRENS. 177

south it crossed the main stream of that river alto-gether, forming an ocean of vegetation of more than1,000,000 square miles, of which the greater partstill remains. Although forests occupy so much ofthe country, there are immense prairies on the eastside of the river also. Pine-barrens, stretching: farinto the interior, occupy the whole coast of theMexican Gulf eastward from the Pearl River,through Alabama and a great part of Florida.

These vast monotonous tracts of sand, covered withforests of gigantic pine-trees, are as peculiarly adistinctive feature of the continent of North Ame-rica as the prairies, and are not confined to this partof the United States ; they occur to a great extentin North Carolina, Virginia, and elsewhere. Ten-nessee and Kentucky, though much cleared, stillpossess large forests, and the Ohio flows for hundredsof miles among magnificent trees, with an under-growth of azaleas, rhododendrons, and other beau-tiful shrubs, matted together by creeping plants.There the American forests appear in all their glory,the gigantic deciduous cypress, and the tall tulip-tree, overtopping the forest by half its height, avariety of noble oaks, black walnuts, Americanplane, hiccory, sugar-maple, and the lyriodendron,the most splendid of the magnolia tribe, the pride ofthe forest.

The Illinois waters a country of prairies everfresh and green, and five new states are rising roundthe great lakes, whose territory of 280,000 squaremiles contains 180,000,000 acres of laud, of ex-

VOL. i. N


cellent quality. These states, still mostly coveredwith wood, lie between the lakes and the Ohio, andthey reach from the United States to the UpperMississippi—a country twice as large as France, andsix times the size of England.

The quantity of water, in the north-eastern partof the central plain, greatly preponderates over thatof the land ; the five principal lakes, Huron, Supe-rior, Michigan, Erie, and Outario, cover an areaequal to Great Britain, without reckoning smalllakes and rivers innumerable.

The Canadas contain millions of acres of goodsoil, covered with immense forests. Upper Canadais the most fertile, and in many respects is oneof the most valuable of the British colonies in thewest: every European grain, and every plant thatrequires a hot summer, and can endure a coldwinter, thrives there. The forests consist chieflyof black and white spruce, the Weymouth and otherpines—trees which do not admit of undergrowth:they grow to great height, like bare spars, with atufted crown, casting a deep gloom below. Thefall of large trees from age is a common occurrence,and not without danger, as it often causes the de-struction of those adjacent, and an ice-storm isawful.

After a heavy fall of snow, succeeded by rain anda partial thaw, a strong frost coats the trees and alltheir branches with transparent ice often an inchthick: the noblest trees bend under the load, icicleshang from every bough, which come down in showers

CANADIAN FORESTS. 179

with the least breath of wind. The hemlock-spruceespecially, with its long drooping branches, is thenlike a solid mass. If the wind freshens, the smallertrees become like corn beaten clown by the tempest,while the large ones swing heavily in the breeze.The forest at last gives way under its load; treecomes down after tree with sudden and terrificviolence, crushing all before them till the whole isone wide uproar, heard from afar like successivedischarges of artillery. Nothing, however, can beimagined more brilliant and beautiful than theeffect of sunshine in a calm day on the frozen boughs,where every particle of the icy crystals sparkles, andnature seems decked in diamonds.*

Although the subsoil is perpetually frozen at thedepth of a few feet below the surface, beyond the 56thdegree of North latitude, yet trees grow in someplaces up to the 64th parallel. Farther north, thegloomy and majestic forests cease, and are succeededby a bleak, barren waste, which becomes progressivelymore dreary as it approaches the Arctic Ocean. Four-fifths of it are like the wilds of Siberia in surfaceand climate, covered many months in the year withdeep snow. During the summer it is the resort ofherds of rein-deer and buffalos, which come fromthe south to browse on the tender short grass whichthen springs up along the streams and lakes.

The Alleghanny or Appalachian chain, which con-stitutes the second or subordinate system of NorthAmerican mountains, separates the great central

* Mr. Taylor.N 2


plain from that which lies along the AtlanticOcean. Its base is a strip of table-land from 1000to 3000 feet high, lying between the sources of therivers Alabama and Yazan, in the southern statesof the Union, and New Brunswick, at the mouth ofthe river St. Lawrence. This high land is traversedthroughout 1000 miles, between Alabama and Ver-mont, by from three to five parallel ridges of lowmountains rarely more than 3000 or 4000 feet high,and separated by fertile longitudinal valleys, whichoccupy more than two-thirds of its breadth of 100miles. In Virginia and Pennsylvania, the only partof the chain to which the name of the AlleghannyMountains properly belongs, it is 150 miles broad;and the whole is computed to have an area of2,000,000 square miles. The parallelism of theridges, and the uniform level of their summits, arethe characteristics of this chain, which is lower andless wild than the Rocky Mountains. The unifor-mity of outline in the southern and middle parts ofthe chain is very remarkable, and results from theirpeculiar structure.* These mountains have no cen-tral axis, but consist of a series of convex andconcave flexures, forming alternate hills and longi-tudinal valleys, running nearly parallel throughouttheir length, and cut transversely by the rivers thatflow to the Atlantic on one hand, and to the Mis-sissippi on the other. The water-shed nearly followsthe windings of the coast, from the point of Floridato the north-western extremity of the State of Maine.

* Mr. Lyell's America.

ALLEGHANNY MOUNTAINS. 181

The picturesque and peaceful scenery of the Appa-lachian Mountains is well known ; they are generallyclothed with a luxuriant and varied vegetation, andtheir western slope is considered one of the finestcountries in the United States. To the south theymaintain a distance of 200 miles from the Atlantic,but approach close to the coast in the south-easternpart of the state of New York, from whence theirgeneral course is northerly to the river St. Law-rence. They fill the Canadas, Maine, New Bruns-wick, and Nova Scotia with branches as high asthe mean elevation of the principal chain, and extendeven to the dreary regions of Baffin's Bay. Not onlythe deep forests, but vegetation in general, diminishas the latitude increases, till on the Arctic shores thesoil becomes incapable of culture, and the majesticforest is superseded by the Arctic birch which creepson the ground. The islands along the north-easterncoasts have more than the mildness of the main-land.Though little favoured by nature, many of themproduce flax and timber; and Newfoundland, aslarge as England and Wales, maintains a populationof 70,000 souls by its fisheries ; it is nearer to Bri-tain than any part of America—the distance fromthe port of St. John to the harbour of Valentia inIreland is only 1656 nautical miles.

The long, and comparatively narrow plain whichlies between the Appalachian Mountains and theAtlantic, extends from the Gulf of Mexico to theeastern coast of Massachusetts. At its southern ex-tremity it joins the plain of the Mississippi, and gra-


dually becomes narrower in its northern course toNew England, where it merely includes the coastislands. I t is divided throughout its length by aline of cliffs from 200 to 300 feet high, which be-gins in Alabama, and ends in the coast of Massa-chusetts. This escarpment is the eastern edge ofthe terrace known as the Atlantic Slope, which risesabove the Maritime or Atlantic Plain, and undulateswestward to the foot of the Blue Mountains, themost eastern ridge of the Appalachian Chain. It isnarrow at its extremities in Alabama and New York,but in Virginia and the Carolinas it is 200 mileswide. The surface of the slope is of great uni-formity ; ridges of hills and long valleys run alongit parallel to the mountains, close to which it is 600feet high. I t is rich in soil and cultivation, and hasan immense water-power in the streams and riversflowing from the mountains across it, which are pre-cipitated over its rocky edge to the plains on thewest. More than twenty-three rivers of consider-able size fall in cascades down this ledge betweenNew York and the Mississippi, affording scenes ofgreat beauty.

Both land and water assume a new aspect on theAtlantic Plain. The rivers, after dashing over therocky barrier, run in tranquil streams to the ocean,and the plain itself is a monotonous level, not morethan a hundred feet above the surface of the sea.Along the coast it is scooped into valleys and ravines,with innumerable creeks.

The greater part of the magnificent countries east


of the Alleghannies is in a high state of cultivationand commercial prosperity, with natural advantagesnot surpassed in any country. Nature, however,still maintains her sway in some parts, especiallywhere pine-barrens and swamps prevail. The ter-ritory of the United States occupies 7,000,000or 8,000,000 square miles, the greater part of itcapable of producing everything that is useful toman, but not more than the twenty-sixth part of ithas been cleared; the climate is healthy, the soilfertile, abounding in mineral treasures, and it pos-sesses every advantage from navigable rivers andexcellent harbours. The outposts of civilizationhave already advanced half-way to the Pacific, andthe tide of white men is continually and irresistiblypressing onwards to the ultimate extinction of theoriginal proprietors of the soil—a melancholy, butnot a solitary instance of the rapid extinction of awhole race.

Crystalline and silurian rocks, rich in precious andother metals, form the substratum of Mexico, forthe most part deeply covered with plutonic and vol-canic formations and secondary limestone; yet gra-nite comes to the surface on the coast of Acapulca,and occasionally on the plains and mountains of thetable-land. The Rocky Mountainsare mostly silurian,except the eastern ridge, which is of stratified crys-talline rocks, amygdaloid and ancient volcanic pro-ductions. The coast-chain has the same character,with immense tracts of volcanic rocks, both ancientand modern, especially obsidian, which is nowhere


developed on a greater scale, except in Mexico andthe Andes.

In North America, as in the southern part of thecontinent, volcanic action is entirely confined to thecoast and highland along the Pacific. The nume-rous vents in Mexico and California are often ingreat activity, and hot springs abound. Though aconsiderable interval occurs north of these, wherethe fire is dormant, the country is full of igneousproductions, and it again finds vent in Prince ofWales's Island, which has seven active volcanos.From Mount St. Elias westward through the wholesouthern coast of the peninsula of Russian Americaand the Aleutian Islands which form a semicirclebetween Cape Alaska, in America, and the penin-sula of Kamtchatka, volcanic vents occur, and in thelatter peninsula there are three of great height.

From the similar nature of the coasts, and theidentity of the fossil mammalia on each side of Beh-ring's Strait, it is more than probable that the twocontinents were united even since the sea was inha-bited by the existing species of shell-fish. Some ofthe gigantic quadrupeds of the Old Continent are sup-posed to have crossed either over the land or overthe ice to America, and to have wandered southwardthrough the longitudinal valleys of the Rocky Moun-tains, Mexico, and Central America, and to havespread over the vast plains of both continents, evento their utmost extremity. An extinct species ofhorse, the mastodon, a species of elephant, threegigantic edentata, and a hollow-horned runiinat-


ing animal roamed -over the pampas of the southerncontinent, and the prairies of the northern; cer-tainly since the sea was peopled by its present inha-bitants, probably even since the existence of theIndians. The skeletons of these creatures are foundin great numbers in the saline marshes on theprairies called the Licks, which are still the resortof the existing races.

There were, however, various animals peculiar toAmerica, as well as to each part of that continent,at least as far as yet known. South America stillretains in many cases the type of its ancient inhabit-ants, though on a very reduced scale. But on thePatagonian plains and on the pampas, skeletons ofcreatures of gigantic size and anomalous forms havebeen found; one like an ant-eater of great magni-tude, covered with a prodigious coat of mail similarto that of the armadillo ; others like gigantic rats ormice, perhaps the largest animals yet discovered,—all of which had lived on vegetables, and had existedat the same time with those already mentioned.These animals were not destroyed by the agency ofman, since creatures not larger than a rat vanishedfrom Brazil within the same period.

The geological outline of the United States, theCanadas, and all the country to the Polar Ocean,though highly interesting in itself, becomes infinitelymore so when viewed in connection with that ofnorthern and middle Europe: A remarkable analogyexists in the structure of the land on each side of thenorth Atlantic basin. Gneiss, mica-schist, and oc-


casional granite, prevail over wide areas in theAlleghannies, on the Atlantic slope, and still morein the northern latitudes of the American continent;and they range also through the greater part ofScandinavia, Finland, and Lapland. In the lattercountries, and in the more northern parts of Ame-rica, Mr. Lyell has observed that the fossiliferousrocks belong either to the most ancient or to thenewest formations, to the Silurian strata, or to suchas contain shells of recent species only, no inter-mediate formation appearing through immense re-gions. Silurian strata extend over 2000 miles inthe middle and high latitudes of North America;they occupy a tract nearly as great between themost westerly headlands of Norway and those thatseparate the White Sea from the Polar Ocean; andSir Roderick Murchison has traced them throughcentral and eastern Europe, and the Ural Mountains,even to Siberia. Throughout these vast regions,both in America and Europe, the Silurian strata arefollowed in ascending order by the Devonian andcarboniferous formations, which are developed on astupendous scale in the United States, chiefly in theAlleghanny Mountains and on the Atlantic slope.The Devonian and carboniferous strata together area mile and a half thick in New York, and threetimes as much in Pennsylvania, where one singlecoal-field occupies 63,000 square miles between thenorthern limits of that State and Alabama. Thereare many others of great magnitude, both in theStates and to the north of them, so that the most


valuable of all minerals is here inexhaustible, whichis not the least of the many advantages enjoyed bythat flourishing country. The coal formation is alsodeveloped in New Brunswick, and traces of it arefound on the shores and in the islands of the PolarOcean, on the east coast of Greenland, and even inSpitzbergen.

Vast carboniferous basins exist in Belgium abovethe Silurian strata; and a great portion of Britainis perfectly similar in structure to North America.The Silurian rocks in many instances are the same ;and the coal-fields of New England are preciselysimilar to those in Wales, 3000 miles off. It wouldbe difficult to estimate the quantity of coal in Britainand Ireland, but there is probably enough to last forsome thousand years. If science continues to ad-vance as i* has lately done, a substitute will inall probability be discovered before the coal isexhausted.

In all the more northern countries that have beenmentioned, so very distant from one another, thegeneral range of the rocks is from north-east, to south-west ; and in northern Europe, the British isles, andNorth America, great lakes are formed along thejunction of the strata, the whole analogy affording aproof of the wide diffusion of the same geologicalconditions in the northern regions at a very remoteperiod. At a later time those erratic blocks, whichare now scattered over the higher latitudes of bothcontinents, were most likely brought from the northby drift ice or currents, while the land was still


covered by the deep. Volcanic agency has not beenwanting to complete the analogy. The Silurian andoverlying strata have been pierced in many placesby trappean rocks in both continents, and theyappear also in the islands of the North Atlantic andPolar seas. Even now the volcanic fires are in greatactivity in the very centre of that basin in Iceland,and in the very distant and less known island of JanMayen's Land.

( 189 )

CHAPTER XIII.

GREENLAND—• SPITZBERGEN — ICELAND—JAN MAYEN'S LANDANTARCTIC LANDS VICTORIA CONTINENT.

GREENLAND, the most extensive of the Arctic lands,begins with the lofty promontory of Cape Farewell,the southern extremity of a group of rocky islands,•which are separated by a channel five miles widefrom a table-land of appalling aspect, narrow to thesouth, but increasing in breadth northward to a dis-tance of which only 1300 miles are known. Thistable-land is bounded by mountains rising from thedeep in mural precipices, which terminate in needlesand pyramids, or in parallel terraces of alternatesnow and bare rock, occasionally leaving a narrowshore. The coating of ice is so continuous and thickthat the surface of the table-land may be regarded asone enormous glacier, which overlaps the rockyedges and dips between the mountain peaks intothe sea.

The coasts are beset with rocky islands, and clovenby fiords which, in some instances, wind like riversfor 100 miles into the interior. These deep inletsof the sea, now sparkling in sunshine, now shaded ingloom, are hemmed in by walls of rock often 2000feet high, whose summits are hid in the clouds.They generally terminate in glaciers, which are


sometimes forced on by the pressure of the upper iceplains till they fill the fiord and even project far intothe sea like bold headlands, when, undermined bythe surg'e, huge masses of ice fall from them with acrash like thunder, making the sea boil. These ice-bergs, carried by currents, are stranded on the Arcticcoast, or are driven into lower latitudes. The ice isvery transparent and compact in the Arctic regions:its prevailing tints are blue, green, and orange,which, contrasted with the dazzling whiteness of thesnow and the gloomy hue of the rocks, produce astriking effect.

A great fiord in the 68th parallel of latitude issupposed to extend completely across the table-land,dividing the country into south and north Green-land, which last extends indefinitely towards the pole,but it is altogether inaccessible from the frozen seaand the iron-bound shore, so that, excepting a verysmall portion of the coast, it is an unknown region.

In some sheltered spots in south Greenland, espe-cially along the borders of the fiords, there are mea-dows where the service-tree bears fruit; beech andwillow trees grow by the streams, but not taller thana man ; and still farther north the willow and juniperscarcely rise above the surface ; yet this country hasa flora peculiar to itself. South of the island ofDisco, on the west coast, Danish colonies and mis-sionaries have made settlements on some of theislands, and at the mouths of fiords ; the Esquimauxinhabit the coasts even to the extremity of Baf-fin's Bay.

SPITZEERGEN—ICELAND. 191

The aspect of other Arctic lands is like that ofGreenland. In the island of Spitzbergen the moun-tains spring sharp and grand from the margin of thesea in dark gloomy masses, mixed with pure snow andenormous glaciers, presenting a sublime spectacle.The sun is not seen for several months in the year,when the intensity of the cold splits rocks and makesthe sea reek like a boiling caldron. Many haveperished in the attempt to winter in this island, yet acolony of Russian hunters and fishermen lead amiserable existence there within 10° of the pole—the most northern inhabited spot on the globe.

Although the direct rays of the sun are powerful insheltered spots within the Arctic circle, the thermo-meter does not rise above 45° of Fahrenheit. July isthe only month in which snow does not fall, and in theend of August the sea at night is covered with a thincoating of ice, and a summer often passes withoutone day that can be called warm. The snow-blink,the aurora, the stars, and the moon, which appearsten or twelve days without intermission in hernorthern declination, furnish the greatest light theinhabitants enjoy in their long winter.

Iceland is 200 miles east from Greenland, andlies south of the Arctic Circle, which its mostnorthern point touches. Though a fifth part largerthan Ireland, not more than 4000 square milesare habitable; all beside being a chaos of volcanosand ice.*

* Trevelyan's Travels in Iceland.


The peculiar feature of Iceland lies in a trachyticregion, which seems to rest on an ocean of fire. Itconsists of two vast parallel table-lands covered withice-clad mountains, stretching from N.E. to S.W.through the very centre of the island, separated bya longitudinal valley nearly 100 miles wide, whichreaches from sea to sea. These mountains assumerounded forms with long level summits, or domeswith sloping declivities, as in the trachyte mountainsof the Andes and elsewhere; but such huge massesof tufa and conglomerate project from their sides inperpendicular or overhanging precipices, sepa-rated by deep ravines, that the regularity of theirstructure can only be perceived from a distance: theyconceal under a cold and tranquil coating of ice thefiery germs of terrific convulsions, sometimes burst-ing into dreadful activity, sometimes quiescent forages. The most extensive of the two parallel rangesof Jokuls or Ice Mountains runs along the easternside of the valley, and contains Ordefa, the highestpoint in Iceland, seen like a white cloud from a greatdistance at sea ; the western high land passes throughthe centre of the island.

Glaciers cover many thousand square miles inIceland, descending from the mountains and pushingfar into the low lands. This tendency of the ice toencroach has very materially diminished the quantityof habitable ground, and the progress of the glaciersis facilitated by the influence of the ocean of subter-ranean fire, which heats the superincumbent groundand loosens the ice.

ICELAND—HEKLA. 193

The longitudinal space between the mountainoustable-lands is a low valley 100 miles wide, extendingfrom sea to sea, where a substratum of trachyte iscovered with lava, sand, and ashes, studded with lowvolcanic cones. I t is a tremendous desert, neverapproached without dread even by the natives; ascene of perpetual conflict between the antagonistpowers of fire and frost, without a drop of water ora blade of grass: no living creature is to be seen, nota bird nor even an insect. The surface is a con-fused mass of streams of lava rent by crevices ; androcks piled on rocks, with occasional glaciers, con.-plete the scene of desolation. As herds of rein-deerare seen browsing on the Iceland moss that growsplentifully at its edges, it may be presumed thatsome unknown parts may be less barren. The ex-tremities of the valley are more especially the the-atres of perpetual volcanic activity. At the southernend, which opens to the sea in a wide plain, thereare many volcanos, of which Hekla, is most known,from its insulated position, its vicinity to the coast,and its tremendous eruptions. The cone is dividedinto three peaks by crevices which are filled withsnow : one of these fissures cleaves the mountain fromthe summit to the base; it is supposed to have beenproduced by the great eruption of 1300. Betweenthe years 1004 and 1766 twenty-three violent erup-tions have taken place, one of which continued sixyears, spreading devastation over a country once theabode of a thriving colony, now covered with lava,scoriae, and ashes; and in the year 1846 it was in

VOL. I. O


full activity. The eruption of Skaptar, which brokeout on the 8th of May, 1783, and continued tillAugust, is one of the most dreadful recorded. Thesun was hid many days by dense clouds of vapour,which extended to England and Holland, and thequantity of matter thrown out in this eruption wascomputed at fifty or sixty thousand millions ofcubic yards. Some rivers were heated to ebullition,others dried u p : the condensed vapour fell insnow and torrents of rain; the country was laidwaste, famine and disease ensued, and in the courseof the two succeeding years 1300 people and150,000 sheep and horses perished. The sceneof horror was closed by a dreadful earthquake.Previous to the explosion an ominous mildnessof temperature indicated the approach of the vol-canic fire towards the surface of the earth: similarwarnings had been observed before in the eruptionsof Hekla.

A semicircle of volcanic mountains, on the easternside of the lake Myvatr, is the focus of the igneousphenomena at the northern end of the great centralvalley. Leirhnukr and Krabla, on the N.E. of thelake, have been especially formidable. After yearsof quiescence they suddenly burst into violent erup-tion, and poured such a quantity of lava into thelake Myvatr, which is 20 miles in circumference,that the water boiled many days. There are othervolcanos in this district no less formidable. Variouscaldrons of boiling mineral pitch, the shattered cra-ters of ancient volcanos, occur at the base of this

ICELAND—BOILING SPRINGS. 195

semicircle of mountains, and also on the flanks ofMount Krabla. These caldrons throw up jets of thedark matter, enveloped in clouds of steam, at regularintervals, with a loud explosion.

The eruptive boiling springs of Iceland are per-haps the most extraordinary phenomenon in this sin-gular country. All the great aqueous eruptionsoccur in the trachytic formation : they are charac-terized by their high temperature, by holding sili-ceous matter in solution, which they deposit in theform of siliceous sinter, and by the discharge of sul-phuretted hydrogen gas. Numerous instances ofspouting springs occur at the extremities of the greatcentral valley, especially at its southern end wheremore than fifty have been counted in the space of afew acres—some constant, others periodical, somemerely agitated, or stagnant. The Great Geyserand Stokr, six miles north-west from Hekla, are themost magnificent; at regular intervals they projectlarge columns of boiling water 100 feet high, en-veloped in clouds of steam, with tremendous noise.Some springs emit gas only, or gas with a smallquantity of water. Such fountains are not confinedto the land, or fields of ice ; they occur also in thesea, and many issue from crevices in the lava-bedof the lake My vatr, and rise in jets above the surfaceof the water.

A region of the same character with the moun-tains of the Icelandic desert extends due west from itto the extremity of the long narrow promontory of theSneefield Syssel, ending in the snow-clad cone of the

o 2


Sneefieid Jokul, 5000 feet high, one of the mostconspicuous mountains in Iceland.

With the exception of the purely volcanic dis-tricts described, trap-rocks cover 20,000 squaremiles of Iceland, in beds perfectly parallel, andalmost horizontal, which have been formed bystreams of lava at very ancient epochs, spread overthe country occasionally 4000 feet deep.

The dismal coasts are torn in every direction byfiords penetrating many miles into the interior, andsplitting into endless branches. In these fissuresthe sea is still, dark, and deep between walls of rock1000 feet high. The fiords, however, do not here,as in Greenland, terminate in glaciers, but areprolonged in narrow valleys through which streamsand rivers run to the sea. In these valleys the in-habitants have their abode, or in meadows which havea transient verdure along some of the fiords, wherethe sea is so deep that ships find safe anchorage.

In the valleys on the northern coast, near as theyapproach to the Arctic circle, the soil is wonder-fully good, and there is more vegetation than in anyother part of Iceland, with the exception of theeastern shore, which is the most favoured portion ofthis desolate land. Rivers abounding in fish aremuch more frequent there than elsewhere; willowsand juniper adorn the valleys, and birch-trees 20feet high grow in the vale of Lagerflest, the onlyplace which produces them large enough for house-building, and the verdure is fine on the banks ofthose streams which are heated by volcanic fires.

ICELAND—JAN MAYEN. 197

The climate of Iceland is much less rigorous thanthat of Greenland, and it would be still milder werenot the air chilled by the immense fields of ice fromthe Polar Sea which beset its shores.

The inhabitants are supplied with fuel by theGulf Stream, which brings drift wood in greatquantity from Mexico, the Carolinas, Virginia, theriver St. Lawrence, some even from the Pacific Ocean,is drifted by currents round by the northern shores ofSiberia. The mean temperature in the south of theisland is about 39° of Fahrenheit, that of the centraldistricts 36°, and in the north it is rarely above thefreezing point. The cold is most intense when thesky is clear, but that is a rare occurrence, as thewind from the sea covers mountain and valley withthick fog. Hurricanes are frequent and furious,and, although thunder is seldom heard in high lati-tudes, Iceland is an exception, for tremendousthunder-storms are not uncommon there—a circum-stance no doubt owing to the volcanic nature of thatisland, as lightning accompanies volcanic eruptionseverywhere. The sun is always above the horizonin the middle of summer, and under it in mid-winter, yet there is no absolute darkness.

The island of Jan Mayen lies nearly midway be-tween Iceland and Spitzbergen: it is the mostnorthern volcanic country known. Its principalfeature is the volcano of Beerenberg, 6S7O feet high,flanked by enormous glaciers, whose lofty snow-capped cone, apparently inaccessible, has been seento emit fire and smoke.


The south polar lands are equally volcanic, andas deeply icebound, as those to the north. VictoriaLand, which from its extent seems to form part of acontinent, was discovered by Sir James Ross, whocommanded the expedition sent by the British Go-vernment in 1839 to ascertain the position of thesouth magnetic pole. The extensive tract lies underthe meridian of New Zealand ; Cape North, its mostnorthern point, is situate in 70° 31 ' S. lat., and165° 28' E. long. To the west of that cape thenorthern coast of this new land terminates in per-pendicular ice-cliffs from 200 to 500 feet high,strerching as far as the eye can reach, with a chainof grounded icebergs extending for miles from thebase of the cliffs, all of tabular form, and varyingin size from one to nine or ten miles in circumfer-ence. A lofty range of peaked mountains rises inthe interior at Cape North, covered with unbrokensnow, only relieved from uniform whiteness byshadows produced by the undulations of the surface.The indentations of the coast are filled with icemany hundreds of feet thick, which makes it im-possible to land. To the east of Cape North thecoast trends first to S.E. by E., and then in asoutherly direction to 78£° of south latitude, atwhich point it suddenly bends to the east and ex-tends in one contiuuous vertical ice-cliff to an un-known distance in that direction. The first view ofVictoria Land is described as most magnificent.<' On the 11th of January, 1841, in about latitude71° S., and longitude 171° E., the Antarctic con-

VICTORIA CONTINENT. 199

tinent was first seen, the general outline of which atonce indicated its volcanic character, rising steeplyfrom the ocean in a stupendous mountain range,peak above peak, enveloped in perpetual snow, andclustered together in countless groups resembling avast mass of crystallisation, which, as the sun's rayswere reflected on it, exhibited a scene of such un-equalled magnificence and splendour as would baffleall power of language to portray or give thefaintest conception of. One very remarkable peak,in shape like a huge crystal of quartz, rose to theheight of 7867 feet, another to 9096, and a thirdto 8444 feet above the level of the sea. From thesepeaks ridges descended to the coast, terminatingabruptly in bold capes and promontories, whosesteep escarpments, affording shelter to neither ice norsnow, alone showed the jet black lava or basalt whichreposed beneath the mantle of eternal frost." . . . ." On the 28th, in latitude 77° 31', and longitude167° 1', the burning volcano, Mount Erebus, wasdiscovered covered with ice and snow from its baseto its summit, from which a dense column of blacksmoke towered high above the numerous other loftycones and crateriferous peaks with which this ex-traordinary land is studded from the 72nd to the78th degree of latitude. Its height above the sea is12,367 feet; and Mount Terror, an extinct crateradjoining it, which has doubtless once given vent tofires beneath, attains an altitude little inferior, being10,884 feet, in height, and ending in a cape fromwhich a vast barrier of ice extended in an easterly


direction, checking all farther progress south. Thiscontinuous perpendicular wall of ice, varying inheight from 200 to 100 feet, its summit presentingan almost unvarying level outline, we traced for300 miles, when the pack-ice obstructed all fartherprogress." *

The vertical cliff in question forms a completelysolid mass of ice about 1000 feet thick: the greaterpart of which is below the surface of the sea; thereis not the smallest appearance of a fissure through-out its whole extent; and the intensely blue, skybeyond, indicated plainly the great distance towhich the ice-plains reach southwards. Giganticicicles hang from every projecting point of the icycliff, showing that it sometimes thaws in these lati-tudes, although in the month of February, whichcorresponds with August in England, Fahrenheit'sthermometer did not rise above 14° at noon. Inthe North Polar Ocean, on the contrary, streamsof water flow from every iceberg during summer.The whole of this country is beyond the pale ofvegetation : no moss, not even a lichen, covers thebarren soil, where everlasting winter reigns. Parry'sMountains, a lofty range 'stretching south fromMount Terror to the 79th parallel, is the mostsoutherly land yet discovered. The south magneticpole, the object of the expedition, is situated inVictoria Land, in 75° 5' S. lat., and 154° 8'E. long.

* Remarks on the Antarctic Continent and SouthernIslands, by Robert M'Cormick, Esq., Surgeon of H. M.S.Erebus.

VICTORIA CONTINENT. 2 0 1

Various tracts of land have been discovered nearthe Antarctic circle, and within it, though none inso high a latitude as Victoria Land : whether theyform part of one large continent remains to be ascer-tained. Discovery ships, which have been sent by theRussian, French, and American Governments, haveincreased our knowledge of these far regions, and thespirited adventures of British merchants and cap-tains of whalers have contributed quite as much.

The land within the Arctic circle is generallyvolcanic, at least the coast-line, which is all that isyet known, and, being covered with snow and ice, itis destitute of vegetation.

( 202 )

CHAPTER XIV.

THE CONTINENT OF AUSTRALIA—TASMANIA, OR VAN DIEMEN's

LAND—NEW ZEALAND—NEW GUINEA—BORNEO—ATOLLS-

ENCIRCLING REEFS CORAL REEFS—BARRIER REEFS—VOL-

CANIC ISLANDS—AREAS OF SUBSIDENCE AND ELEVATION IN

THE BED O F THE PACIFIC—ACTIVE VOLCANOS.

T H E labyrinth of islands that is scattered over thePacific Ocean for more than 30 degrees on each sideof the equator, and from the 130th eastern meridianto Sumatra, which all but unites this enormousarchipelago to the continent of Asia, has the groupof New Zealand or Tasmania, and the continent ofAustralia, with its appendage, Yan Diemen's Land,on the south ; and altogether forms a region which,from the unstable nature of the surface of the earth,is partly the wreck of a continent that has beenengulfed by the ocean, and partly the highest sum-mits of a new one rising above the waves. Thisextensive portion of the globe is, in many parts,terra incognita; the Indian Archipelago has neverbeen explored, and, with the exception of ourcolonies in New Holland and New Zealand, is littleknown.

The continent of New Holland, 2400 miles fromeast to west, and 1700 from north to south, isdivided into two unequal parts by the tropic ofCapricorn, and consequently has both a temperate

AUSTRALIA. 203

and a tropical climate. New Guinea, separated fromNew Holland by Torres Straits, and traversed by thesame chain of mountains with New Holland andVan Diemen's Land, is so perfectly similar in struc-ture, that it forms but a detached member of theadjacent continent.

The coasts of New Holland are indented by verylarge bays, and by harbours that might give shelterto all the navies in Europe. The most distinguish-ing feature of the eastern side, which is chieflyoccupied by the British colony of New South "Wales,is a long chain of mountains which never goes farfrom the coast, and, with the exception of someshort deviations in its southern part, maintains ameridional direction through 35° of latitude. Itis continued at one extremity from Torres Straits,at the north end of the Gulf of Carpentaria, far intothe interior of New Guinea; arid at the other ittraverses the whole of Van Diemen's Land. It islow in the northern parts of New Holland, being insome places merely a high land ; but about the 30thdegree of south latitude it assumes the form of aregular mountain chain, and, running in a verytortuous line from N.E. to S.W., terminates itsvisible course at Wilson's Promontory, the southernextremity of the continent. I t is continued, how-ever, by a chain of mountainous islands across Bass'sStraits to Cape Portland, in Van Diemen's Land ;and from thence the range proceeds in a zigzag lineof high and picturesque mountains to South Cape,where it ends, having, in its course of 1500 miles,


separated the drainage of both countries into easternand western waters.

The distance of the chain from the sea in NewSouth Wales is from 50 to 100 miles, but at the32nd parallel it recedes to 150, yet soon returns,and forms the wild group of the Corecudgy peaks,from whence, under the names of the Blue Moun-tains and Australian Alps, its highest part, it pro-ceeds in a general westerly direction to the land'sends.

The average height of these mountains is onlyfrom 2400 to 4700 feet above the level of the sea,and even Mount Kosciuszko, the loftiest of theAustralian Alps, is not more than 6500 feet high,yet its position is so favourable, that the view fromits snowy and craggy top sweeps over 7000 squaremiles. The rugged and savage character of thesemountains far exceeds what might be expected fromtheir height: in some places, it is true, their topsare rounded and covered with forests; but by farthe greater part of the chain, though wooded alongthe flanks, is crowned by naked needles, tooth-formed peaks, and flat crests of granite or porphyry,mingled with patches of snow. The spurs give aterrific character to these mountains, and in manyplaces render them altogether inaccessible, both inNew South Wales and Van Diemen's Land. Theseshoot right and left from the ridgy axis of the mainrange, equal to it in height, and separated from it,and from one another, by dark and almost subter-raneous gullies, like rents in the bosom of the earth,

NEW SOUTH WALES. 205

iron-bound by impracticable precipices, with streamsflowing through them in black silent eddies orfoaming torrents. The intricate character of theseravines, the danger of descending into them, andthe difficulty of getting out again, render this moun-tain-chain, in New South Wales at least, almost acomplete barrier between the country on the coastand that in the interior—a circumstance very un-favourable to the latter.*

In New South Wales the country slopes westwardfrom these mountains to a low, flat, unbroken plain.On the east side, darkly verdant and round-toppedhills and ridges are promiscuously grouped together,leading to a richly-wooded undulating country,which gradually descends to the coast, and formsthe valuable lands of the British colony. Discoveredby Cook in the year 1770, it was not colonized till1788. It has become a prosperous country ; andalthough new settlers in the more remote partssuffer the privations and difficulties incident to theirposition, yet there is educated society in the towns,with the comforts and luxuries of civilized life.

The coast-belt on the western side of New Hollandis generally of inferior land, with richer tracts inter-spersed near the rivers ; and bounded on the east bya range of primary mountains from 3000 to 4000feet high, in which granite occasionally appears. Be-yond this the country is level, and the land better,though nowhere very productive except in grass.

* Memoirs of Count Strzelecki.


None of the rivers of New Holland are navigableto any great distance from their mouths; the wantof water is severely felt in the interior, which, asfar as it is known, is a treeless desert of sand,swamps, and jungle; yet a belief prevails that thereis a large sea, or fresh-water lake, in its centre; andthis opinion is founded partly on the nature of thesoil, and also because all the rivers that flow intothe sea on the northern coast, between the gulfs ofVan Diemen and Carpentaria, converge towardstheir sources, as if they served for drains to somelarge body of water.

However unpropitious the middle of the continentmay be, and the shores generally 'have the samebarren character, there is abundance of fine countryinland from the coasts. On the north all tropicalproductions might be raised, and in so large a con-tinent there must be extensive tracts of arable land,though its peculiar character is pastoral. Thereare large forests on the mountains and elsewhere, yetthat moisture is wanting which clothes other countriesin the same latitudes with rank vegetation. In thecolonies the clearing of a great extent of land hasincreased the mean annual temperature, so that theclimate has become hotter and drier, and not therebyimproved.

Van Diemen's Land, of triangular form, has anarea of 27.200 square miles, and is very moun-tainous. No country has a greater number of deepcommodious harbours; and as most of the rivers,though not navigable to any distance, end in arms

VAN DIEMEN'S LAND. 207

of the sea, they afford secure anchorage for ships ofany size. The mountain-chain that traverses thecolony of New South Wales, and the islands inBass's Straits, starts anew from Cape Portland, and,winding through Van Diemen's Land in the formof the letter Z, separates it into two nearly equalparts, with a mean height of 3750 feet, and at anaverage distance of 40 miles from the sea. It en-closes the basins of the Derwent and Heron rivers,and, after sending a branch between them to HobartTown, ends at South Cape. The offsets whichshoot in all directions are as savage and full ofimpassable chasms as it is itself. There are cul-tivable plains and valleys along the numerous riversand large lakes by which the country is wellwatered ; so that Van Diemen's Land is more agri-cultural and fertile than the adjacent continent, butits climate is wet and cold. The uncleared soil ofboth countries, however, is far inferior to that in thegreater part of North or South America.*

Granite constitutes the entire floor of the westernportion of New South Wales, and extends far intothe interior of the continent, bearing a striking re-semblance in character to a similar portion of theAltai chain described by Baron Humboldt. Thecentral axis of the mountain range, in New SouthWales and in Van Diemen's Land, is of granite,syenite, and quartz; but in early times there hadbeen great invasions of volcanic substances, as many

* Count Strzelecki.


parts of the main chain, and most of its offsets, areof the older igneous rocks. The fossiliferous strataof the two colonies are mostly of the Palaeozoicperiod, but their fossil fauna is poor in species.Some are identical with, and others are representa-tives of, the species of other countries, even ofEngland. I t appears, from their coal-measures, thatthe flora of these countries was as distinct in appear-ance from that of the northern hemisphere, previousto the carboniferous period, as it is at the present day.

New Zealand, divided into three islands by rockyand dangerous channels, is superior to Australia inrichness of soil, fertility, and beauty, and aboundsin fine timber and a variety of vegetable and mineralproductions. High mountains run through theislands, which in the most northerly rise 14,000 feetabove the stormy ocean around, buried two-thirdsof their height in permanent snow and glaciers, andexhibiting on the grandest scale all the Alpine cha-racters, with the addition of active volcanos onthe eastern and western coasts. The coast is abroken country, overspread with a most luxuriant, butdark and gloomy vegetation. There are undulatingtracts and table-lands of great extent without atree, overrun by ferns and a low kind of myrtle;but the mountain-ridges are clothed with dense andgigantic forests. There is much good land andmany lakes, with navigable rivers and the best ofharbours; so that this country is peculiarly wellsuited for a colony, but difficult of access from aboisterous ocean.

NEW ZEALAND—NEW GUINEA—BORNEO. 209

A very different scene from the stormy seas ofNew Zealand presents itself to the north of Aus-tralia. There, vivified by the glowing sun of theequator, the islands of the Indian Archipelago areof matchless beauty, crowned by lofty mountains,loaded with aromatic verdure, that shelve to theshore, or dip into a transparent glassy sea. Theircoasts are cut by deep inlets, and watered by thepurest streams, which descend in cascades, rushingthrough wild crevices. The whole is so denselycovered with palms and other beautiful forms oftropical vegetation, that they seem to realize a ter-restrial paradise.

Papua, or New Guinea, is the largest island inthe Pacific, 1400 miles long, and 200 in width,with mountains rising above mountains, till in thewest they attain the height of 16,000 feet, cappedwith snow, and two volcanos burn on its northernshores. From its position so near the equator, it isprobable that New Guinea has the same vegetationwith the Spice Islands to the east; and, from thelittle that is known of it, must be one of the finestcountries in existence.

Borneo, next in size to New Guinea, is a nobleisland, divided in two by the equator, and traversedthrough its whole length by magnificent chains ofmountains, which end in three branches at the JavaSea. Beautiful rivers flow from them to the plains,and several of these spring from a spacious lakeon the table-land in the interior, among the peaksof Keni-Balu, the highest point, of the island.

VOL. i. r


Diamonds, gold, and antimony are among its mine-rals ; gums, precious woods, and all kinds of spicesand tropical fruits, are among its vegetables.

A volume might be written on the beauty andriches of the Indian Archipelago. Many of theislands are hardly known, and the interior of thegreater number has never been explored; so thatthey offer a wide field of discovery to the enter-prising traveller, and they are now of easier accesssince the seas have been cleared of pirates by theHonorable Captain Keppel. The success of Mr.Brook in conciliating the natives is a noble instanceof the power of mind.

They have become of much importance since ourrelation with China has been altered, and on thataccount Captain Stanley, and other scientific navalofficers, have been employed to survey the coastsand channels of these unknown seas. The greatintertropical islands in the Pacific, likewise otherlarge islands, as Ceylon and Madagascar in theIndian Seas, which, by the way, do not differ incharacter from the preceding, are really continentsin miniature, with their mountains and plains, theirlakes and rivers; and in climate they vary, likethe main land, with the latitude, only that conti-nental climates are more extreme both as to heatand cold.

I t is a singular circumstance, arising from theinstability of the crust of the earth, that, with onlythree or four exceptions, all the smaller tropicalislands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans are either

ATOLLS. 211

volcanic or coralline, except New Caledonia and theSeychelles; and it is a startling fact, that, in mostcases where there are volcanos, the land is rising byslow and almost imperceptible degrees above theocean, whereas there is every reason to believe thatthose vast spaces, studded with coral islands or atolls,are actually sinking below it, and have been for ages.*

There are four different kinds of coral formationsin the Pacific and Indian Oceans, all entirely pro-duced by the growth of organic beings and theirdetritus ; namely, lagoon islands or atolls, encirclingreefs, barrier reefs, and coral fringes. They are allnearly confined to the tropical regions; the atollsto the Pacific and Indian Oceans alone.

An atoll, or lagoon island, consists of a chapletor ring of coral, enclosing a lagoon, or portion of theocean, in its centre. The average breadth of thepart of the ring above the surface of the sea is abouta quarter of a mile, oftener less, and it seldom riseshigher than from 6 to 10 or 12 feet above thewaves. Hence the lagoon islands are not discern-ible at a very small distance, unless when they arecovered with the cocoa-nut, palm, or the pandana,which is frequently the case. On the outer sidethis ring or circlet shelves down to the distance of100 or 200 yards from its edge, so that the seagradually deepens to 25 fathoms, beyond which thesides plunge at once into the unfathomable depths ofthe ocean, with a more rapid descent than the cone

* Darwin on Coral Keefs.p 2


of any volcano. Even at the small distance of somehundred yards, no bottom has been found with asounding-line a mile and a half long. All the coralat a moderate depth below water is alive—all aboveis dead, being the detritus of the living part washedup by the surf, which is so tremendous on the wind-ward side of the tropical islands of the Pacific andIndian Oceans that it is often heard miles off, andis frequently the first warning to seamen of theirapproach to an atoll.

On the lagoon side, where the water is calm, thebounding-ring, or reef, shelves into it by a succes-sion of ledges, also of living coral, though not of thesame species with those which build the exterior walland the foundations of the whole ring. The per-petual change of water brought into contact withthe external coral by the breakers probably suppliesthem with more food than they could obtain in aquieter sea, which may account for their more luxu-riant growth. At the same time, they deprive thewhole of the corals in the interior of the most nou-rishing part of their food, because the still-water inthe lagoon, being supplied from the exterior byopenings in the ring, ceases to produce the hardiercorals; and species of more delicate forms, and ofmuch slower growth, take their place.* The depthof the lagoon varies, in different atolls, from 20 to50 fathoms, the bottom being partly detritus and

* Supplement to the Observations on the Temple of Serapis,by Charles Babbage, Esq.

ATOLLS. 213

partly live coral. By the growth of the coral, somefew of the lagoons have been filled up ; but the pro-cess is very slow from the causes assigned, and alsobecause there are marine animals that feed on theliving coral, and prevent its indefinite growth. Inall departments of nature, the exuberant increaseof any one class is checked and limited by others.The coral is of the most varied and delicate struc-ture, and of the most beautiful tints. Dark brown,vivid green, rich purple, pink, deep blue, peach-colour, yellow, with dazzling white, contrastedwith deep shadows, shine through the limpid water;while fish of the most gorgeous hues swim amongthe branching coral, which are of many differentkinds, though all combine in the structure of thesesingular islands. Lagoon islands are sometimescircular, but more frequently oval or irregular intheir form. Sometimes they are solitary, or ingroups, but they occur most frequently in elongatedarchipelagos, with the atolls elongated in the samedirection. The grouping of atolls bears a perfectanalogy to the grouping of the archipelagos of ordi-nary islands.

The size of atolls varies from two to ninetymiles in diameter, and islets are frequently formedon the coral rings by the washing up of the detritus,for they are so low that the waves break over themin high tides or storms. They have openings orchannels in their circuit, generally on the lee side,where the tide enters, and by these ships may sailinto the lagoons, Avhich are excellent harbours; and


even on the surface of the circlet or reef itself thereare occasionally boat-channels, between the islets.

Dangerous Archipelago, lying east of the SocietyIslands, is one of the most remarkable assemblagesof atolls in the Pacific Ocean. There are 80 ofthem, generally of a circular form, surrounding verydeep lagoons, and separated from each other by pro-found depths. The reefs or rings are about halfa mile wide, and seldom rise more than 10 feetabove the edge of the surf, which beats on themwith such violence that it may be heard at thedistance of 8 miles ; and yet on that side the coralinsects build more vigorously, and vegetation thrivesbetter, than on the other : many of the islets are in-habited.

The Caroline Archipelago, the largest of all,lies north of the equator, and extends its atolls in60 groups over 1000 miles. Many are of greatsize, and all are beat by a tempestuous sea and occa-sional hurricanes. The atolls in the Pacific Oceanand China Sea are beyond enumeration. Thoughless frequent in the Indian Ocean, none are moreinteresting, or afford more perfect specimens of thispeculiar formation, than the Maldiva and LaccadiveArchipelagos, both nearly parallel to the coast ofMalabar, and elongated in that direction. Theformer is 470 miles long, and about 50 miles broad,with the atolls arranged in a double row, separatedby an unfathomable sea, into which their sides de-scend with more than ordinary rapidity. The largestatoll is 88 miles long, and somewhat less than 20

ENCIRCLING REEFS. 215

broad ; Suadiva, the next in size, is 44 miles by 23,with a large lagoon in its centre, to which there isaccess by 42 openings. There are inhabited isletson most of the chaplets or rings not higher than 20feet, while the reefs themselves are nowhere morethan 6 feet above the surge.

The Laccadives run to the north of this archi-pelago in a double line of nearly circular atolls, onwhich are low inhabited islets.

Encircling reefs differ in no respect from atollreefs except that they have one or more islands intheir lagoon. They commonly form a ring roundmountainous islands, at a distance of two or three milesfrom the shore, rising on the outside from a verydeep ocean, and separated from the land by a lagoonor channel 200 or 300 feet deep. These reefs sur-round the submarine base of the island, and, risingby a steep ascent to the surface, they encircle theisland itself. The Caroline Archipelago, alreadymentioned, exhibits good examples of this structurein the encircled islands of Hogolen and Seniavine:the narrow ring or encircling reef of the former is135 miles in its very irregular circuit, on which area vast number of islets; but six or eight islands riseto considerable height from its lagoon, which is sodeep, and the opening into it so large, that a frigatemight sail into it. The encircling reef of Seniavineis narrow and irregular, and its lagoon is so nearlyfilled by a lofty island, that it leaves only a strip ofwater round it from two to five miles wide and 30fathoms deep.


Otaheite, the largest of the Society group, isanother instance of an encircled island of the mostbeautiful kind ; it rises in mountains 1000 feet high,with only a narrow plain along the shore, and, ex-cept where cleared for cultivation, it is covered withforests of cocoa-nut, palms, bananas, bread-fruit, andother productions of a tropical climate. The lagoon,which encompasses it like an enormous moat, is 30fathoms deep, and is hemmed in from the ocean bya coral band of the usual kind, at a distance varyingfrom half a mile to three miles.

Barrier reefs are of precisely the same structureas the two preceding classes, from which they onlydiffer in their position with regard to the land. Abarrier reef off the north-east coast of the continent ofAustralia is the grandest coral formation existing.Rising at once from an unfathomable ocean, it ex-tends 1000 miles along the coast, with a breadthvarying from 200 yards to a mile, and at an averagedistance of from 20 to 30 miles from the shore, insome places increasing to 60 and even 70 miles.The great arm of the sea included between it andthe land is nowhere less than 10, occasionally 60fathoms deep, and is safely navigable throughout itswhole length, with a few transverse openings, bywhich ships can enter. The reef is really 1200miles long, because it stretches nearly across TorresStraits. There are also extensive barrier reefs onthe islands of Louisiade and New Caledonia, whichare exactly opposite to the great Australian reef;and as atolls stud that part of the Pacific which lies

BARRIER REEFS—CORAL REEFS. 217

between them, it is called the Coralline Sea. Therolling of the billows along the great Australianreef has been admirably described. " The longocean-swell, being suddenly impeded by this barrier,lifted itself in one great continuous ridge of deepblue water, which, curling over, fell on the edge ofthe reef in an unbroken cataract of dazzling whitefoam. Each line of breaker runs often one or twomiles in length with not a perceptible gap in itscontinuity. There was a simple grandeur and dis-play of power and beauty in this scene that roseeven to sublimity. The unbroken roar of the surf,with its regular pulsation of thunder, as each suc-ceeding swell fell first on the outer edge of the reef,was almost deafening, yet so deep-toned as not tointerfere with the slightest nearer and sharper sound.

Both the sound and sight were such as toimpress the spectator with the consciousness of stand-ing in the presence of an overwhelming majesty andpower." *

Coral reefs are distinct from all the foregoing:they are merely fringes of coral along the margin ofa shore, and, as they line the shore itself, they haveno lagoons. A vast extent of coast, both on thecontinents and islands, are fringed by these reefs,and, as they frequently surround shoals, they arevery dangerous.

Lagoon islands are the work of various species

* By Mr. Jukes, Naturalist to the Surveying Voyage ofCaptain Blackwood, R.N., in Torres Straits.


of coral insects, but those particular polypi whichbuild the profound external wall, the foundation andsupport of the whole ring- or reef, are most vigorouswhen most exposed to the breakers: they cannotexist at a greater depth than 25 or 30 fathoms atmost, and die immediately when left dry; yet thecoral wall descends precipitously to unfathomabledepths ; and although the whole of it is not the workof these insects, yet the perpendicular thickness ofthe coral is known to be very great, extendinghundreds of feet below the depth at which thesepolypi cease to live. From an extensive survey ofthe Coralline Seas of the tropics, Mr. Darwin hasfound an explanation of these singular phenomena inthe instability of the crust of the earth.

Since there are certain proofs that large areas ofthe dry land are gradually rising1, and others sinkingdown, so the bottom of the ocean is not exempt fromthe general change that is slowly bringing about anew state of things; and as there is evidence onmultitudes of the volcanic islands in the Pacific of arise in certain parts of the basis of the ocean, sothe lagoon islands indicate a subsidence in others-changes arising from the expansion and contractionof the strata under the bed of the ocean.

There are strong reasons for believing that a con-tinent once occupied a great part of the tropicalPacific, some part of which subsided by slow andimperceptible degrees. As portions of it graduallysank down below the surface of the deep, the tops ofmountains and table-lands would remain as islands

SUBSIDENCE OF LAND OF THE PACIFIC. 219

of different magnitude and elevation, and wouldform archipelagos elongated in the direction of themountain-chains. Now the coral-insect which con-structs the outward wall and mass of the reefs neverbuilds laterally, and cannot exist at a greater depththan 25 or 30 fathoms. Hence, if it began to laythe foundations of its reef on the submerged flanksof an island, it would be obliged to build its wallupwards in proportion as the island sank down, sothat at length a lagoon would be formed betweenit and the land. As the subsidence continued, thelagoon would increase, the island would diminish,and the base of the coral reef would sink deeper anddeeper, while the insects would always keep its topjust below the surface of the ocean, till at length theisland would entirely disappear, and a perfect atollwould be left. If the island were mountainous, eachpeak would form a separate island in the lagoon, andthe encircled islands would have different forms,which the reefs would follow continuously. Thistheory perfectly explains the appearances of thelagoon islands and barrier reefs, the continuity ofthe reef, the islands in the middle of the lagoons,the different distances of the reefs from them, andthe forms of the archipelago so exactly similar tothe archipelagos of ordinary islands, all of whichare but the tops of submerged mountain-chains, andgenerally partake of their elongated forms.

Every intermediate form between an atoll and anencircling reef exists ; New Caledonia is a link be-tween them. A reef runs along the north-western

2 2 0 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY-.

coast of that island 400 miles, and for many leaguesnever approaches within 8 miles of its shore, andthe distance increases to 16 miles near the southernextremity. At the other end the reefs are con-tinued on each side 150 miles beyond the submarineprolongation of the land marking the former extentof the island. In the lagoon of Keeling Atoll,situate in the Indian Ocean 600 miles south ofSumatra, many fallen trees and a ruined store-houseshow that it has subsided : these movements takeplace during the earthquakes at Sumatra, which arealso felt in this atoll. Violent earthquakes havelately been felt at Vanikora, a lofty island with anencircling reef in the western part of the SouthPacific, and on which there are marks of recent sub-sidence. Other proofs are not wanting of this greatmovement in the beds of the Pacific and IndianOceans.

The extent of the atoll formations, includingunder this name encircling reefs, is enormous. Inthe Pacific, from the southern end of Low Archi-pelago to the northern end of Marshall Archipelago,a distance of 4500 miles, and many degrees of lati-tude in breadth, there is not an island that is not ofatoll formation. The same may be said of thespace in the Indian Ocean between Saya de Mathaand the end of the Laccadives, which includes 25degrees of latitude—such are the enormous areasthat have been, and probably still are, slowly sub-siding. Other spaces of great extent may also bementioned—as the large archipelago of the Caro-

VOLCANIC ISLANDS. 2 2 1

linas, that in the Coralline Sea off the north-westcoast of Australia, and an extensive one in the ChinaSea.

Though the volcanic islands in the Pacific are sonumerous, there is not one within the areas men-tioned, and there is not an active volcano withinseveral hundred miles of an archipelago, or evengroup of atolls. This is the more interesting, asrecent shells and fringes of dead coral, found atvarious heights on their surfaces, show that thevolcanic islands have been rising more and moreabove the surface of the ocean for a very long time.

The volcanic islands also occupy particular zonesin the Pacific, and it is found from extensive ob-servation that all the points of eruption fall on theareas of elevation.

One of the most terribly active of these zonesbegins with the Banda group of islands, and includesTimor, Sumbawa, Bali, Java, and Sumatra, sepa-rated only by narrow channels, and altogether form-ing a gently curved line 2000 miles long; but asthe volcanic zone is continued through BarrenIsland, in the Bay of Bengal, northward to anisland off the Birmah coast, the entire length of thisvolcanic range is a great deal more.

The little island of Gounong-Api, belonging tothe Banda group, contains a volcano of great ac-tivity ; and such is the elevating pressure of the sub-marine fire in that part of the ocean, that a mass ofblack basalt rose up of such magnitude as to fill abay 60 fathoms deep so quietly that the inhabitants


were not aware of what was going on till it wasnearly done. Timor and the other adjacent islandsalso bear marks of recent elevation.

There is not a spot of its size on the face of theearth that contains so many volcanos as the islandof Java.* A range of volcanic mountains, from5000 to 13,000 feet high, forms the central crest ofthe island, and ends to the east in a series of 38separate volcanos with broad bases rising graduallyinto cones. They all stand on a plain but littleelevated above the sea, and each individual moun-tain seems to have been formed independently of therest. Most of them are of great antiquity, and arecovered with thick vegetation. Some are extinct,or only emit smoke ; from others sulphureous vapoursissue with prodigious violence ; one has a large craterfilled with boiling water ; and a few have had fierceeruptions of late years. The island is covered withvolcanic spurs from the main ridge, united by crosschains, together with other chains of less magnitudebut no less fury.

In 1772 the greater part of one of the largestvolcanic mountains was swallowed up after a shortbut severe combustion: a luminous cloud enve-loped the mountain on the 11th of August, and soonafter the huge mass actually disappeared under theearth with tremendous noise, carrying with it about90 square miles of the surrounding country, 40villages, and 2957 of their inhabitants.

* Sir Stamford Raffles on Java.

ACTIVE VOLCANOS. 223

The northern coast of Java is flat and swampy,but the southern provinces are beautiful and ro-mantic ; yet in the lovely peaceful valleys the still-ness of night is disturbed by the deep roaring of thevolcanos, many of which are perpetually burningwith slow but terrific action.

Separated by narrow channels of the sea, Bali andSumbawa are but a continuation of Java, the samein nature and structure, but on a smaller scale,their mountains being little more than 8000 feethigh.

The intensity of the volcanic force under thispart of the Pacific may be imagined from the erup-tion of Tomboro in Sumbawa in 1815, which con-tinued from the 5th of April till July: the explo-sions were heard at the distance of 970 miles; andin Java, at the distance of 300 miles, the darknessduring the day was like that of deep midnight. Thecountry around was ruined, and the town of Tom-boro was submerged by heavy rollers from theocean.

In Sumatra the extensive granitic formations ofeastern Asia join the volcanic series which occupiesso large a portion of the Pacific. This most beauti-ful of islands presents the boldest aspect: it is in-dented by arms of the most transparent sea, andwatered by innumerable streams; it displays in itsvegetation all the bright colouring of the tropics.Here the submarine fire finds vent in three volcanoson the southern, and one on the northern side of theisland. A few atolls, many hundreds of miles to the


south, show that this volcanic zone alternates withan area of subsidence.

More to the north, and nearly parallel to the pre-ceding zone, another line of volcanic islands beginsto the north of New Guinea, and passes throughNew Britain, New Ireland, Solomon's Island, andthe New Hebrides, containing many open vents.This range, or area of elevation, separates the Coral-line Sea from the great chain of atolls on the northbetween Ellice's group and the Caroline Islands, sothat it lies between two areas of subsidence.

The third and greatest of all the zones of volcanicislands begins at the northern extremity of Celebes,and includes Gilolo, one of the Molucco group,which is bristled with volcanic cones; and fromthence it may be traced northwards through thePhilippine Islands and Formosa : bending thence tothe north-east, it passes through Loo Choo, the JapanArchipelago, and is continued by the Kurile Islandsto the peninsula of Kamtchatka, where there areseveral active volcanos of great elevation.

The Philippine Islands and Formosa form thevolcanic separation between the atoll region in theChina Sea and that of the Caroline and Pellewgroups.

There are six islands east of Jephoon, in theJapan Archipelago, which are subject to eruptions,and the internal fire breaks through the KurileIslands in 18 vents, besides having raised two newislands in the beginning of this century, one four milesround and the other 3000 feet high, though the

ACTIVE VOLCANOS. 225

ocean there is so deep that the bottom has not beenreached with a line 200 fathoms long.

Thus some long rent in the earth had reachedfrom the tropics to the gelid seas of Okhotsk, pro-bably connected with the peninsula of Kamtschatka:a new one begins to the east of the latter in theAleutian Islands, which are of the most barren anddesolate aspect, perpetually beaten by the surge ofa restless ocean, and bristled by the cones of 24volcanos ; they sweep in a half-moon round Behring'sSea till they join the volcanic peninsula of RussianAmerica.

The line of volcanic agency has been followed farbeyond the limits of the coral working insects, whichextend but a short way on each side of the tropics;but it has been shown that, in the equatorial regions,immense areas of elevation alternate with as greatareas of subsidence: north of New Holland theyare so mixed that it indicates a point of converg-ence.*

On the other side of the Pacific the whole chainof the Andes, and the adjacent islands of JuanFernandez and the Galapagos, form a vast volcanicarea, which is actually now rising. And thoughthere are few volcanic islands north of the zoneof atolls, yet those that be indicate great internalactivity, especially the Sandwich Islands, where thevolcanos of Owhyhee are inferior to none in awfulsublimity.

* Darwin on Volcanic Islands.VOL. I. Q


I t may be observed that, where there are coralfringes, the land is either rising or stationary; for,were it subsiding, lagoons would be formed. Onthe contrary, there are many fringing reefs on theshores of volcanic islands along the coasts of theRed Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the West Indianislands, all of which are rising. Indeed, this oc-currence, in numberless instances, coincides withthe existence of upraised organic remains on theland.

As the only coral formations in the Atlantic arefringing reefs, the bed of that ocean is not sinking;and, with the exception of the Leeward Islands, theCanaries, and Cape de Verde groups, there are noactive volcanos on the islands or on the coasts ofthat ocean. The Peak of Teneriffe is a splendid in-stance.

At present the great continent has few centres ofvolcanic action in comparison with what it oncehad. The Mediterranean is still undermined byfire, which occasionally finds vent in Vesuvius andthe stately cone of Etna. Though Stromboli con-stantly pours forth an inexhaustible stream of lava,and a temporary island now and then starts up fromthe sea, the volcanic action is diminished, and Italyhas become comparatively more tranquil.

The table-land of western Asia, especially Azer-bijan, had once been the seat of intense commotion,now spent, or only smoking from the snowy coneof Demavend. The table-land of eastern Asia fur-nishes the solitary instance of igneous explosion at

EARTHQUAKES. 227

a distance from the sea in the volcanic chain of theThean-Tchan.

The seat of activity has been perpetually chang-ing. There always has been volcanic action, pos-sibly more intense in former times, but even atpresent it extends from pole to pole.

Notwithstanding the numerous volcanic vents inthe globe, many places are subject to violent earth-quakes, which ruin the works of man, and oftenchange the configuration of the country.

Earthquakes are produced by fractures and suddenheavings and subsidences in the elastic crust of theglobe, from the pressure of the liquid fire, vapour,and gases in its interior, which there find vent, re-lieve the tension which the strata acquire duringtheir slow refrigeration, and restore equilibrium.But whether the initial impulse be eruptive, or asudden pressure upwards, the shock originating inthat point is propagated through the elastic surfaceof the earth in a series of circular or oval undula-tions, similar to those produced by dropping a stoneinto a pool, and like them they become broader andlower as the distance increases, till they graduallysubside: in this manner the shock travels throughthe land, becoming weaker and weaker till it ter-minates. When the impulse begins in the inte-rior of a continent, the elastic wave is propagatedthrough the solid crust of the earth, as well as insound through the air, and is transmitted from theformer to the ocean, where it is finally spent andlost, or, if very powerful, is continued in the opposite

Q2

22% PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.

land. Almost all the great earthquakes howeverhave their origin in the bed of the ocean, far fromland, whence the shocks travel in undulations to thesurrounding shores.

No doubt many of small intensity are imper-ceptible ; it is only the violent efforts of the internalforces that can overcome the pressure of the ocean'sbed, and that of the superincumbent water. Theinternal pressure is supposed to find relief mostreadily in a belt of great breadth that surrounds theland at a considerable distance from the coast, and,being formed of its debris, the internal temperatureis in a perpetual state of fluctuation, which wouldseem to give rise to sudden flexures and submarineeruptions.

When the original impulse is a fracture or eruptionof lava in the bed of the deep ocean, two kinds ofwaves or undulations are produced and propagatedsimultaneously—one through the bed of the ocean,which is the true earthquake shock ; and coincidentwith this a wave is formed and propagated on thesurface of the ocean, which rolls to the shore, andreaches it in time to complete the destruction longafter the shock or wave through the solid ocean-bedhas arrived and spent itself on the land. The heightto which the surface of the ground is elevated, or thevertical height of the shock-wave, varies from oneinch to two or three feet. This earth-wave, onpassing under deep water, is imperceptible, butwhen it comes to soundings it carries with it to theland a long flat aqueous wave: on arriving at the

EARTHQUAKES. 229

beach the water drops in arrear from the superiorvelocity of the shock, so that at that moment the seaseems to recede before the great ocean-wave arrives.

It is the small forced wave that gives the shockto ships, and not the great wave ; but when shipsare struck in very deep water, the centre of disturb-ance is either immediately under, or very nearlyunder, the vessel.

Three other series of undulations are formedsimultaneously with the preceding, by which thesound of the explosion is conveyed through theearth, the ocean, and the air, with different velocities.That through the earth travels at the rate of from7000 to 10,000 feet in a second in hard rock, andsomewhat less in looser materials, and arrives at thecoast a short time before, or at the same momentwith the shock, and produces the hollow sounds thatare the harbingers of ruin ; then follows a continuoussuccession of sounds, like the rolling of distantthunder, formed, first, by the wave that is propagatedthrough the water of the sea, which travels at therate of 4700 feet in a second; and, lastly, by thatpassing through the air, which only takes placewhen the origin of the earthquake is a submarineexplosion, and travels with a velocity of 1123 feetin a second. The rolling sounds precede the arrivalof the great wave on the coasts, and are continuedafter the terrific catastrophe when the eruption isextensive.

When there is a succession of shocks all the phe-nomena are repeated.


The velocity of the great oceanic wave varies asthe square root of the depth ; it consequently has arapid progress through deep water, and less when itcomes to soundings. The velocity of the shockvaries with the elesticity of the strata it passesthrough. The undulations of the earth are subjectto the same laws as those of light and sound ; hence,when the shock or earth-wave passes through strataof different elasticity, it will partly be reflected, anda wave will be sent back, producing a shock in acontrary direction, and partly refracted, or its coursechanged; so that shocks will occur both upwardsand downwards, to the right or to the left of theoriginal line of transit. Hence most damage is doneat the junction of deep alluvial plains with the hardstrata of the mountains, as in the great earthquakein Calabria in the year 1783.

When the height of the undulations is small, theearthquake will be a horizontal motion, which is theleast destructive ; when the height is great, the ver-tical and horizontal motions are combined, and theeffect is terrible; but the worst of all is a verticoseor twisting motion, which nothing can resist. It isoccasioned by the crossing of two waves of hori-zontal vibration, which unite at their point of inter-section and form a rotatory movement. This, andthe interferences of shocks arriving at the samepoint from different origins or routes of differentlength, account for the repose in some places^ andthose extraordinary phenomena that took placeduring the earthquake of 1783 in Calabria, where

EARTHQUAKES. 231

the shock diverged on all sides from a centrethrough a highly elastic base covered with alluvialsoil, which was tossed about in every direction.The dynamics of earthquakes are ably discussed byMr. Mallet in a very interesting paper in the Trans-actions of the Royal Irish Academy.

There are few places where the earth is Ions: atrest; for, independently of those secular elevationsand subsidences that are in progress over such ex-tensive tracts of country, small earthquake shocksmust be much more frequent than we imagine,though imperceptible to our senses, and only to bedetected by means of instruments. The shock ofan earthquake at Lyons in February, 1822, was notgenerally perceptible at Paris, yet the wave reachedand passed under that city, and was detected by theswinging of the large declination needle at the Ob-servatory, which had previously been at rest. Evenin Scotland 139 slight shocks have been registeredwithin a few years, of which 81 occurred at Comriein Perthshire, but the cause is at no great depthunder the surface, as the shocks extended to a smalldistance.

The undulations of some of the great earthquakeshave spread to an enormous extent: that which de-stroyed Lisbon had its origin immediately under thedevoted city, from whence the shock extended overan area of about 700,000 square miles, or a twelfthpart of the circumference of the globe: the WestIndian islands, and the lakes in Scotland, Norway,and Sweden, were agitated by it. I t began without


warning, and in five minutes the city was a heap ofruins.

The earthquake of 1783, in Calabria, which com-pletely changed the face of the country, lasted onlytwo minutes, but it was not very extensive. BaronHumboldt's works are full of interesting details onthis subject, especially with regard to the tremen-dous convulsions in South America.

Sometimes a shock has been carried undergroundwhich was not felt at the surface, as in the year1802, in the silver-mine of Marienberg, in theHartz. In some instances miners have been insen-sible to shocks felt on the surface above, whichhappened at Fahlun, in Sweden, in 1823—circum-stances depending, in both instances, on the elasti-city of the strata, the depth of the impulses, orobstacles that may have changed the course of theterrestrial undulation. During earthquakes disloca-tions of strata take place, the course of rivers ischanged, and in some instances they have been per-manently dried up, rocks are hurled down, massesraised up, and the configuration of the countryaltered ; but if there be no fracture at the point oforiginal impulse, there will be no noise.

( 233 )

CHAPTER XV.

THE OCEAN—ITS SIZE, COLOUR, PRESSURE, AND SALTNESS—

TIDES, WAVES, AND CURRENTS TEMPERATURE — NORTH

AND SOUTH POLAR ICE—INLAND SEAS.

T H E ocean, which fills a deep cavity in the globeand covers three-fourths of its surface, is so un-equally distributed that there is three times moreland in the northern than in the southern hemisphere.The torrid zone is chiefly occupied by sea, andonly one twenty-seventh part of the land on one sideof the earth has land opposite to it on the other.The form assumed by this immense mass of water isthat of a spheroid flattened at the poles ; and as itsmean level is always nearly the same, for anythingwe know to the contrary, it serves as a base formeasuring the height of the land.

The bed of the ocean, like that of the land, ofwhich it is the continuation, is diversified by plainsand mountains, table-lands and valleys, sometimesbarren, sometimes covered with marine vegetation,and teeming with life. Now it sinks into depthswhich the sounding-line has never fathomed, now itappears in chains of islands, or rises near to the sur-face in hidden reefs and shoals, perilous to themariner. Springs of fresh water rise from thebottom, volcanos eject their lavas and scoriae, andearthquakes trouble the deep waters.


The ocean is continually receiving the spoils ofthe land, and from that cause would constantly bedecreasing in depth, and, as the quantity of water isalways the same, its superficial extent would increase:there are however counteracting causes to check thistendency; the secular elevation of the land overextensive tracts, in many parts of the world, is one ofthe most important.* Yolcanos, coral islands, andbarrier reefs show that great changes of level areconstantly taking place in the bed of the ocean itself,—that symmetrical bands of subsidence and elevationextend alternately over an area equal to a hemi-sphere, from which it may be concluded that thebalance is always maintained between the sea andland, although the distribution may vary in thelapse of time.

The Pacific or Great Ocean exceeds in superficiesall the dry land on the globe. It has an area of50,000,000 square miles: including the IndianOcean its area is nearly 70,000,000. Its breadthfrom Peru to the coast of Africa is 16,000 miles: itis shorter than the Atlantic, as it only communicateswith the Arctic Ocean by Behring's Strait, whereasthe Atlantic, as far as we know, stretches from poleto pole.

The continent of Australia occupies a compara-tively small portion of the Pacific, while innumer-able islands stud its surface many degrees on eitherside of the equator, of which a great number are

* Darwin on Coral Reefs.

THE OCEAN : ITS SIZE. 235

volcanic, showing that its bed has been, and indeedactually is, the theatre of violent igneous eruptions.So great is its depth that a line five miles long hasnot reached the bottom in many places. Betweenthe tropics it is generally unfathomable; yet, as thewhole mass of the ocean counts for little in the totalamount of terrestrial gravilation, its mean depth isbut a small fraction of the radius of the globe.

The bed of the Atlantic is a long deep valleywith few mountains, or at least but few that raisetheir summits in islands above its surface. Itsgreatest breadth, including the Gulf of Mexico, is5000 miles, and its superficial extent is about25,000,000 square miles. This sea is exceedinglydeep. In 27° 26' S. lat. and 17° 29' W. long. SirJames Ross found the depth to be 14,550 feet;450 miles west from the Cape of Good Hope it was16,062 feet, or 332 feet more than the height of MontBlanc ; and in 15° 3' S. lat. and 23° 14' W. long.a line of 27,600 feet did not reach the bottom,which is equal to the height of some of the most ele-vated peaks of the Himalaya, but there is reason tobelieve that many parts of the ocean are still deeper.A great part of the German Ocean is only 93 feetdeep, though on the Norwegian side, where thecoast is bold, the depth is 910 fathoms.

Immense sand-banks often project from the land,which rise from great depths to within a few fathomsof the surface. Of these the Aghullus Bank, at theCape of Good Hope, is one of the most remarkable:that off Newfoundland is still greater ; it consists of


a double bank, which is supposed to reach to thenorth of Scotland. The Dogger Bank, in the NorthSea, and many others, are well known : some on thecoast of Norway are surrounded by such deep waterthat they must be submarine table-lands. All arethe resort of fish.

The pressure at great depths is enormous. In theArctic Ocean, where the specific gravity of the wateris least, on account of the melting of the ice, thepressure at the depth of a mile and a quarter is 2809pounds on a square inch of surface : this was con-firmed by Captain Scoresby, who says, in his 'ArcticVoyages,' that the wood of a boat suddenly draggedto a great depth by a whale, was found when drawnup so saturated with water forced into its pores,that it sank in water like a stone for a year after-wards: even sea-water is reduced in bulk from20 to 19 solid inches at the depth of 20 fathoms.The compression that a whale can endure is won-derful. All fish are capable of sustaining greatpressures as well as sudden changes of pressure.Divers in the pearl-fisheries exert great muscularstrength; but man cannot bear the increased pres-sure at great depths, because his lungs are full ofair, nor can he endure the diminution of it atgreat altitudes above the earth.

The depth to which the sun's light penetrates theocean depends upon the transparency of the water,and cannot be less than twice the depth to which aperson can see from the surface. In parts of theArctic Ocean shells are distinctly seen at the depth

THE OCEAN : ITS COLOUR. 237

of 80 fathoms; and among the West India islands,in 30 fathoms water, the bed of the sea is as clearas if seen in air : shells, corals, and sea-weeds ofevery hue display the tints of the rainbow.

The purest spring is not more limpid than thewater of the ocean: it absorbs all the prismaticcolours except that of ultramarine, which, beingreflected in every direction, imparts a hue approach-ing the azure of the sky. The colour of the seavaries with every gleam of sunshine or passing cloud,although its true tint is always the same when seensheltered from atmospheric influence. The reflec-tion of a boat on the shady side is often of theclearest blue, while the surface of the water exposedto the sun is bright as burnished gold. The watersof the ocean also derive their colour from insects ofthe infusorial kind, vegetable substances, and minuteparticles of matter. I t is white in the Gulf ofGuinea, black round the Maldives; at Californiathe Vermilion Sea is so called on account of thered colours of the infusoria it contains; the samered colour was observed by Magellan at the mouthof the Eiver Plata. The Persian Gulf is called theGreen Sea by eastern geographers, and there is atract, of green water off" the Arabian coast so distinctthat a ship has been seen in green and blue water atthe same time. Rapid transitions take place in theArctic Sea from ultramarine to olive-green, frompurity to opacity. These appearances are not delu-sive, but constant as to place and colour : the greenis produced by myriads of minute insects, which


devour one another, and are a prey to the whale. Thecolour of clear shallow water depends upon that ofits bed ; over chalk or white sand it is apple-green,over yellow sand dark green, brown or black overdark ground, and grey over mud.

The sea is supposed to have acquired its salineprinciple when the globe was in the act of subsidingfrom a gaseous state. The density of sea-water de-pends upon the quantity of saline matter it contains:the proportion is generally about three or four percent., though it varies in different places ; the oceancontains more salt in the southern than in thenorthern hemisphere, the Atlantic more than thePacific. The greatest proportion of salt in the Pa-cific is in the parallels of 22° N. lat. and 17° S. lat.:near the equator it is less ; and in the Polar Seas itis least, from the melting of the ice. The saltnessvaries with the seasons in these regions, and thefresh water, being lighter, is uppermost. Rain makesthe surface of the sea fresher than the interior parts,and the influx of rivers renders the ocean less saltat their estuaries: the Atlantic is brackish 300 milesfrom the mouth of the Amazons. Deep seas aremore saline than those that are shallow, and inlandseas communicating with the main are less salt, fromthe rivers that flow into them : to this however theMediterranean is an exception, occasioned by thegreat evaporation and the influx of salt currents fromthe Black Sea and the Atlantic. The water in theStraits of Gibraltar, at the depth of 670 fathoms, isfour times as salt as that at the surface.

THE OCEAN : ITS TIDES. 239

Fresh water freezes at the temperature of 32° ofFahrenheit; the point of congelation of salt water islower. As the specific gravity of the water of theGreenland Sea is about 1*02664, it does not freezetill its temperature is reduced to 28^° of Fahrenheit;so that the saline principle preserves the sea in aliquid state to a much higher latitude than if it hadbeen fresh, while it is better suited for navigation byits greater buoyancy. The healthfulness of the seais ascribed to the mixing of the water by tides andcurrents, which prevents the accumulation of putres-cent matter.

Raised by the moon and modified by the sun inthe equatorial seas, the central area of the twooceans is occupied by a great tidal wave, whichoscillates continually, keeping time with the returnsof the moon, having its motion kept, up by her attrac-tion acting at each return. The height of theseoceanic tides depends upon the relative position ofthe sun and moon, and upon their declination anddistances from the earth. From the skirts of thisoscillating central area, partial tides diverge in alldirections, whose velocity depends upon the depthand local circumstances of the sea : these derivativetides are so much influenced by the form of the shorealong which they travel that they become of greatmagnitude in the higher latitudes, while near thecentre of the oscillating area the oceanic tide is oftenvery small. The spring-tides rise 50 or 60 feeton some parts of the British coast; in the Bay ofFundy, in Nova Scotia, they rise 60 feet; at St.


Helena they never exceed three feet; and there isscarcely any tide among many of the tropical islandsin the Pacific.

At the equator the tide follows the moon at therate of 1000 miles an hour ; but the derivative tidesare so retarded by the form of coasts and irregulari-ties at the bottom of the sea, that a tide is sometimesimpeded by an obstacle till a second tide reaches thesame point by a different course, and the water risesto double the height it would otherwise have at-tained : a complete extinction of the tide takes placewhen a high-water interferes in the same mannerwith a low-water, as in the centre of the Ger-man Ocean ; and when two unequal tides ofcontrary phases of rise and fall meet, the greateroverpowers the lesser, and the resulting height isequal to their difference : such varieties occur chieflyamong islands, and at the estuaries of rivers. Whenthe tide flows suddenly up a river, it checks thedescent of the stream, so that a high wave, calleda bore, is driven with force up the channel. Thissometimes occurs in the Ganges; and in the Ama-zons, at the equinoxes, during three successive days,five of these destructive waves, from 12 to 15feet high, follow one another up the river daily.In the Turury Channel, in Cayenne, the sea rises40 feet in five minutes, and as suddenly ebbs.

There may be some small flow of the water west-ward with the oceanic tide under the equator, thoughit is imperceptible; but that does not necessarilyfollow, since the tide in the open ocean is merely an

THE OCEAN : ITS WAVES. 2 4 1

alternate rise and fall of the surface, so that themotion, not the water, follows the moon. A birdresting on the sea is not carried forward as thewaves rise and fall: indeed, if so heavy a body aswater were to move at the rate of 1000 miles in anhour, it would cause universal destruction, since inthe most violent hurricanes the velocity of the windhardly exceeds 100 miles an-hour. Over shallowshowever, and near the land, the water does advance,and rolls in waves on the beach.

The friction of the wind combines with the tidesin agitating the surface of the ocean, and, accordingto the theory of undulations, each produces its effectindependently of the other; wind, however, not onlyraises waves, but causes a transfer of superficial wateralso. Attraction between the particles of air andwater, as well as the pressure of the atmosphere,brings its lower stratum into adhesive contact withthe surface of the sea. If the motion of the windbe parallel to the surface, there will still be friction,but the water will be smooth as a mirror; but if itbe inclined, in however small a degree, a ripple willappear. The friction raises a minute wave, whoseelevation protects the water beyond it from the wind,which consequently impinges on the surface at a smallangle: thus, each impulse combining with the otherproduces aii undulation which continually advances.

Those beautiful silvery streaks on the surface of atranquil sea called catspaws by sailors are owing toa partial deviation of the wind from a horizontaldirection. The resistance of the water increases with

VOL. I . R


the strength and inclination of the wind. The agita-tion at first extends little below the surface, but, inlong-continued gales, even the deep water is trou-bled : the billows rise higher and higher; and as thesurface of the sea is driven before the wind, their" monstrous heads," impelled beyond the perpen-dicular, fall in wreaths of foam. Sometimes severalwaves overtake one another, and form a sublime andawful sea. The highest waves known are thosewhich occur during a north-west gale off the Capeof Good Hope, aptly called the Cape of Storms byancient Portuguese navigators ; and Cape Hornseems to be the abode of the tempest. The sublimityof the scene, united to the threatened danger, natu-rally leads to an over estimate of the magnitude ofthe waves, which appear to rise mountains high, asthey are proverbially said to do. There is, however,reason to doubt if the highest waves off the Cape ofGood Hope exceed 40 feet from the hollow troughto the summit. They are said to rise 20 feet offAustralia, and 16 feet in the Mediterranean. Thewaves are short and abrupt in small, shallow seas,and on that account are more dangerous than thelong rolling billows of the wide ocean.

The undulation called a ground-swell, occasionedby the continuance of a heavy gale, is totally differentfrom the tossing of the billows, which are confined tothe area vexed by the wind, whereas the ground-swellis rapidly transmitted through the ocean to regionsfar beyond the direct influence of the gale that raisedi t ; and it continues to heave the smooth and glassy

THE OCEAN : ITS WAVES. 243

surface of the deep long after the wind and the bil-lows are at rest. A swell frequently comes from aquarter in direct opposition to the wind, and some-times from various points of the compass at the sametime, producing a vast commotion even in a deadcalm, without ruffling the surface. They are theheralds that point out to the mariner the distantregion where the tempest has howled, and they arenot unfrequently the harbingers of its approach. Inaddition to the other dangers from polar ice, thereis always a swell at its margin.

Heavy swells are propagated through the ocean,till they gradually subside from the friction of thewater, or till the undulation is checked by the re-sistance of land, when they roll in surf to the shore,or dash in spray and foam over rocks. The rollersat the Cape de Verde Islands are seen at a great dis-tance approaching like mountains. When a gale isadded to a ground-swell, the commotion is great,and the force of the surge tremendous, tossing hugemasses of rock and shaking the cliffs to their founda-tion. The violence of the tempest is sometimes sointense as to quell the billows and blow the waterout of the sea, driving it in a heavy shower calledspoon-drift by sailors. On such occasions salineparticles have impregnated the air to the distance of50 miles inland.

The effect of a gale descends to a comparativelysmall distance below the surface ; the sea is probablytranquil at the depth of 200 or 300 feet: were it not.so, the water would be turbid and shell-fish would be

K 2


destroyed. Anything that diminishes' the friction ofthe wind smooths the surface of the sea : for example,oil, or a small stream of packed ice, which suppresseseven a swell. When the air is moist its attractionfor water is diminished, and, consequently, so is thefriction ; hence the sea is not so rough in rainy as indry weather.

Currents of various extent, magnitude, and velocitydisturb the tranquillity of the ocean; some of themdepend upon circumstances permanent as the globeitself, others on ever-varying causes. Constant cur-rents are produced by the combined action of therotation of the earth, the heat of the sun, and thetrade winds; periodical currents are occasioned bytides, monsoons, and other periodical winds; tem-porary currents arise from the tides, melting ice, andfrom every gale of some duration. A perpetual cir-culation is kept up in the waters of the main by thesevast marine streams. They are sometimes super-ficial, sometimes submarine, according as their densityis greater or less than that of the surrounding sea.

The exchange of water between the poles and theequator gives rise to the great permanent currents inthe ocean. Although these depend upon the samecauses as the trade winds, they differ essentially inthis respect—that, whereas the atmosphere is heatedfrom below by its contact with the earth, and trans-mits the heat to the strata above, the sea is heatedat its surface by the direct rays of the sun, whichdiminish the specific gravity of the upper strata,especially between the tropics, and also occasion

THE OCEAN : ITS CURRENTS. 245

strong and rapid evaporation, both of which causesdisturb the equilibrium of the ocean. The rotationof the earth also gives the water a tendency to takean oblique direction in its flow towards the equa-torial regions, as, in order to restore the equilibrium,deranged by so many circumstances, great streamsperpetually descend from either pole towards theequator. When these currents leave the poles theyflow directly north and south ; but, before proceed-ing far, their motion is deflected by the diurnal rota-tion of the earth. At the poles they have no rotatorymotion ; and although they gain it more and moreby the friction of the water in their progress to theequator, which revolves at the rate of 1000 milesan-hour, they arrive at the tropics before they haveacquired the same velocity of rotation with the inter-tropical ocean. On that account they are left behind,and consequently seem to flow in a direction contraryto the diurnal rotation of the earth. For that reasonthe whole surface of the ocean, for 30 degrees oneach side of the equator, has an apparent, tendencyfrom east to west, which produces all the effects of agreat current or stream flowing in that direction.The trade winds, which blow constantly nearly thesame way, combine to give this current a velocity of9 or 10 miles in 24 hours.

It is evident that the primary currents, as well asthose derived from them, must be subject to period-ical variations of intensity of six months' duration,because of the melting of the ice at each pole alter-nately.


The westerly tendency of the equatorial currentin the Atlantic is checked by the continent of Ame-rica, which stretches directly across its course ; so thatabout the 10th parallel of south latitude it is dividedby the coast of Brazil into two branches, one ofwhich runs south and the other north-west. Thelatter rushes along the coast of Brazil with suchforce and depth that it is neither deflected by thepowerful stream of the river Amazon nor that of theOrinoco. Though much weakened in passing amongthe "West Indian islands, it acquires new strengthand the high temperature of 86° of Fahrenheit in theCaribbean Sea. From thence, after sweeping roundthe Gulf of Mexico, it flows through the States ofFlorida and along the North American coast toNewfoundland : it is there deflected eastward bythe diminished velocity of rotation, and also by acurrent from Baffin's Bay, so that it proceeds to theAzores. From thence it bends southward, and re-joins the equatorial current, having formed a circuitof 3800 miles with various velocity and a breadthof from 50 to 250 miles, leaving a vast loop or spaceof water nearly stagnant in its centre, which is thicklycovered with sea-weed. The bodies of men, animals,and plants of unknown appearance, brought to theAzores by this stream, suggested to Columbus theidea of land beyond the Western Ocean, and thus ledto his discovery of America. The Gulf Stream ismore salt, warmer, and of a deeper blue than therest of the ocean, till it reaches Newfoundland,where it becomes turbid from the shallowness of that


part of the sea. Its greatest velocity is 78 milesa-day soon after leaving the Florida Strait, and itsgreatest breath is 120 miles, though the warm waterspreads over the surface of the ocean, to a muchgreater extent. An important branch leaves thiscurrent near Newfoundland, setting towards Britainand Norway, which is again subdivided into manybranches, whose origin is recognised by their greaterwarmth, even at the edge of perpetual ice in thePolar Ocean, while they tend in some degree, bytheir superficial direction, to prevent the ice fromspreading over the North Sea; and in consequenceof some of these branches the Spitzbergen Sea is 6°or 7° warmer at the depth of 200 fathoms than it isat the surface. The other branch of the equatorialstream, after setting southward along the coast ofBrazil, becomes insensible before reaching the Straitsof Magellan.

In the Pacific Ocean a current comes from thesouth pole along the shores of Chili and Peru toMexico, having in some seasons a temperature24° below that of the Equatorial Sea. FromMexico, aided by the equatorial current of the GreatOcean, it crosses the Pacific with so strong a stream,that ships passing from Acapulco to Manilla rarelyhave occasion to set their sails. Branches flow oneach side of Australia, which unite and run throughthe Bay of Bengal to the extremity of the Indianpeninsula; one part then strikes across the ocean,another and greater flows through the MozambiqueChannel: these currents then unite in a stream 100


miles broad, and the greater part, called the Lagul-lus Current, doubles the Cape of Good Hope, andrushes down the coast of Africa till it joins theequatorial current of the Atlantic. These oceanicstreams exceed all the rivers in the world in breadthand depth, as well as length. The equatorial cur-rent in the Atlantic is 160 miles broad off the coastof Africa, but towards its mid-course, across theAtlantic, its width becomes nearly equal to thewhole length of Great Britain ; but as it then sendsoff a branch to the N.W., it is diminished to 200miles before reaching the coast of Brazil. Thedepth of this great stream is unknown, but the Bra-zilian branch must be very profound, since it is notdeflected by the river La Plata, which crosses it withso strong a current that its fresh muddy waters areperceptible 500 miles from its mouth. When cur-rents pass over banks and shoals, the colder waterrises to the surface, and gives warning of thedanger.

The action of these oceanic rivers has been verygreat on the eastern sides of both continents, wherethey have scooped out bays and gulfs, and torn offmany islands from the land: indeed, the whole earthbears the marks of a great current rushing with vio-lence from the east.

Under-currents are supposed to flow in manyplaces in a direction opposite to the set of the wateron the surface, but of these little is known. Insummer, the great north polar current comingalong the coasts of Greenland and Labrador,


together with the current from Davis's Straits,bring icebergs to the margin of the Gulf Streamand disappear. Probably from their density theybecome under-currents which pass to lower lati-tudes. Counter-currents on the surface are ofsuch frequent occurrence that there is scarcelya strait joining two seas that does not furnish an ex-ample—a current running in along one shore, and acounter-current running out along the other.

Periodical currents are frequent in the easternseas: one flows into the Red Sea from October toMay, and out of it from May to October; in thePersian Gulf this order is reversed. In the IndianOcean and China Sea the waters are driven alter-nately backwards and forwards by the monsoons.It is the south-westerly monsoon that causes inunda-tions in the Ganges and a tremendous surf on thecoast of Coromandel. The tides also produce peri-odical currents on the coasts and in straits, the waterrunning in one direction during the flood, and thecontrary way in the ebb. The Eoost of Sumbury,at the southern promontory of Zetland, runs at therate of 15 miles an-hour; indeed, the strongest tidalcurrents known are among the Orkney and Zetlandislands; their great velocity arises from local circum-stances. Currents in the wide ocean move at therate of from one to three miles an-hour, and thevelocity is less at the margin and bottom of thestream from friction.

Whirlpools are produced by opposing winds andtides : the whirlpool of Maelstrom, on the coast of


Norway, is occasioned by the meeting of tidal cur-rents round the islands of Logodon and Maskoe ; it isa mile and a half in diameter, and so violent that itsroar is heard at the distance of several leagues.

Although, with winds, tides, and currents, it mightseem that the ocean is ever in motion, yet in theequatorial regions, far from land, dead calms pre-vail ; the sea is of the most perfect stillness day afterday, rarely does a shower fall, thunder is almostnever heard, and the winds are at rest. The sea par-takes of the universal quiet, and heaves its low flatwaves in noiseless and regular periods, as if naturewere asleep.

Salt water is a bad conductor of heat, thereforethe temperature of the ocean is less liable to suddenchanges than the atmosphere: the influence of theseasons is imperceptible at the depth of 300 feet;and as light probably does not penetrate lower than700 feet, the heat of the sun cannot affect the bottomof a deep sea. It has been established beyond adoubt by Kotzebue and Sir James Ross, thatthroughout the whole of the deep ocean the waterhas an invariable temperature of about 39° 5' ofFahrenheit at a certain depth depending on the lati-tude. At the equator the stratum of invariabletemperature is at the depth of 7200 feet; fromthence it gradually rises till it comes to the sur-face in S. lat. 56° 26', where the water has thetemperature of 39° 5' at all depths; it then gra-dually descends to S. lat. 70°, where it is 4500 feetbelow the surface.

THE OCEAN : ITS TEMPERATURE. 2 5 1

In going north from the equator the same law isobserved: hence with regard to temperature thereare three regions in the ocean, one equatorial andtwo polar. In the equatorial region the temperatureof the water at the surface of the ocean is 80°, there-fore higher than that of invariable temperature,while in the polar regions it is lower. Thus thesurface of the stratum of constant temperature is acurve which begins at the depth of 4500 feet inthe southern basin, from whence it gradually risesto the surface in S. lat. 56° 26'; it then sweepsdown to 7200 feet at the equator, and rises upagain to the surface in the corresponding northernlatitude, from whence it descends again to a depth of4500 feet in the northern basin. From these cir-cumstances Sir James Ross justly infers that theinternal heat of the earth has no influence upon themean temperature of the ocean. The temperatureof the surface of the ocean decreases from the equa-tor to the poles. For ten degrees on each side ofthe line the maximum is 80° of Fahrenheit, and re-markably stable; from thence the decrease to eachtropic does not exceed 37°. The tropical tempera-ture would be greater were it not for the currents,because the surface reflects much fewer of the sun'srays, that fall on it directly, than that in higher lati-tudes, where they fall obliquely. In the torrid zonethe surface of the sea is about 35° of Fahrenheitwarmer than the air above it, because the polar winds,and the great evaporation which absorbs the heat,prevent equilibrium ; and as a great mass of water is


slow in following the changes in the atmosphere, thevicissitude of day and night has little influence,whereas in the temperate zones it is perceptible.

The superficial temperature diminishes from thetropics as the latitude increases, more rapidly in thesouthern than in the northern hemisphere, till to-wards each pole the sea becomes a solid mass of ice.In the Arctic Ocean the surface is at the freez-ing point even in summer, and during the eightwinter months a continuous body of ice extends inevery direction from the pole, filling the area of acircle of between 3000 and 4000 miles in diameter.The outline of this circle, though subject to partialvariations, is found to be nearly similar at the sameseason of each succeeding year, yet there are peri-odical changes in the polar ice, which are renewedafter a series of years. The freezing process itselfis a bar to the unlimited increase of the oceanic ice.Fresh water congeals at the temperature of 32° ofFahrenheit, but sea-water must be reduced to 28° 5'before it deposits its salt and begins to freeze: thesalt thus set free, and the heat given out, retard theprocess of congelation more and more below.

The ice from the north pole comes so far southin winter as to render the coast of Newfoundlandinaccessible: it envelops Greenland, sometimes evenIceland, and always invests Spitzbergen and NovaZembla. As the sun comes north the ice breaks upinto enormous masses of what is called packed ice.I t is remarkable that in a fine summer the ice sud-denly clears away, and leaves an open channel of sea

POLAR ICE. 253

along the western coast of Spitzbergen from 60 to150 miles wide, extending to 80° or even 801° N.lat., probably owing to warm currents from low lati-tudes. In the year 1806 Captain Scoresby forcedhis ship through 250 miles of packed ice, in immi-nent danger, until he reached the parallel of 81° 50',his nearest approach to the pole: the Frozen Oceanis rarely navigable so far.

In the year 1827 Sir Edward Parry arrived at thelatitude of 82° 45', which he accomplished by drag-ging a boat over fields of solid ice, but he wasobliged to abandon the bold and hazardous attemptto reach the pole, because the current drifted theice southward more rapidly than he could travel overit to the north.

Floating fields of ice 20 or 30 miles in dia-meter are frequent in the Arctic Ocean; some-times they extend 100 miles, so closely packed toge-ther that no opening is left between them; theirthickness, which varies from 10 to 40 feet, is notseen, as there is at least two-thirds of the mass belowwater. Sometimes these fields, many thousand mil-lions of tons in weight, acquire a rotatory motion ofgreat velocity, dashing against one another with atremendous collision. Packed ice always has a tend-ency to drift southwards, even in the calmest wea-ther ; and in their progress the ice-fields are rent inpieces by the swell of the sea. It is computed that20,000 square miles of drift ice are annually broughtby the current along the coast of Greenland to CapeFarewell. In stormy weather the fields and streams


of ice are covered with haze and spray from constanttremendous concussions; yet our seamen, undismayedby the appalling danger, boldly steer their shipsamidst this hideous and discordant tumult.

Huge icebergs are rolled from the glaciers whichextend miles from the arctic lands into the sea,especially in Baffin's Bay, and are drifted southwards2000 miles from their origin to melt in the Atlantic,where they cool the water sensibly for 40 or 50miles around, and the air to a much greater distance.They vary from a few yards to miles in circumfer-ence, and rise hundreds of feet above the surface.Seven hundred such masses have been seen at oncein the polar basin. When there is a swell the looseice dashing against them raises the spray to theirvery summits ; and if a large mass falls from them,they occasionally lose their equilibrium and rollover, causing a swell which breaks up the neigh-bouring field-ice : the commotion then spreads far andwide, and the uproar resounds for miles like thunder.

Icebergs have the appearance of chalk-cliffs witha glittering surface and emerald-green fractures;pools of water of azure-blue lie on their surface, orfall in cascades into the sea. The field-ice also, andthe masses that are heaped up on its surface, are ex-tremely beautiful from the vividness and contrast oftheir colouring. A peculiar blackness in the atmo-sphere indicates their position in a fog, and theirplace and character are shown at night by the reflec-tion of the snow-light on the horizon. An ex-perienced seaman can readily distinguish whether

POLAR ICE. 255

the ice is newly formed, heavy, compact, or open.The blink or snow-light of field-ice is the mostlucid, and is tinged yellow; of packed ice it is purewhite: ice newly formed has a greyish blink; and adeep yellow tint indicates snow on land.

Icebergs come to a lower latitude by 10° fromthe south pole than from the north, and appearto be larger. One observed by Captain d'Urvillewas 13 miles long, with perpendicular sides 100 feethigh. They are less varied than those on the northernseas ; a tabular form is prevalent. The discoveryships under the command of Sir James Ross metwith multitudes bounded by perpendicular cliffs onevery side, with flat surfaces from 100 to 180 feethigh, sometimes several miles in circumference. Onone occasion they fell in with a chain of stupendousbergs close to one another, extending farther thanthe eye could reach even from the mast-head.Packed ice, too, is in immense quantities: theseships forced their way through a pack 1000 milesbroad, often under the most appalling circumstances.It generally consists of smaller pieces than the packsin the comparatively tranquil North Polar seas, wherethey are often several miles in diameter, and wherefields of ice extend beyond the extent of vision. TheAntarctic Ocean, on the contrary, is almost alwaysagitated ; there is a perpetual swell, and terrificstorms are common, which break up the ice andrender navigation perilous. The pieces are rarely aquarter of a mile in circumference, and generallymuch smaller.


A more dreadful situation can hardly be imaginedthan that of ships beset during a tempest in a densepack of ice in a dark night, thick fog and driftingsnow, with the spray beating perpetually over thedecks, and freezing instantaneously. Sir JamesEoss's own words can alone give an idea of theterrors of one of the many gales which the two shipsunder his command encountered : " Soon after mid-night our ships were involved in an ocean of rollingfragments of ice, hard as floating rocks of granite,which were dashed against them by the waves withso much violence, that their masts quivered as if theywould fall at every successive blow ; and the de-struction of the ships seemed inevitable from thetremendous shocks they received. In the early partof the storm the rudder of the ' Erebus' was so muchdamaged as to be no longer of any use; and aboutthe same time I was informed by signal that the' Terror's' was completely destroyed, and nearly tornaway from the stern-post. Hour passed away afterhour without the least mitigation of the awful cir-cumstances in which we were placed. The loudcrashing noise of the straining and working of thetimbers and decks, as they were driven against someof the heavier pieces of ice, which all the exertionsof our people could not prevent, was sufficient to fillthe stoutest heart, that was not supported by trustin Him who controls all events, with dismay ; and Ishould commit an act of injustice to my companionsif I did not express my admiration of their conducton this trying occasion. Throughout a period of

INLAND SEAS. 257

28 hours, during any one of which there appearedto be very little hope that we should live to seeanother, the coolness, steady obedience, and untiringexertions of each individual, were every way worthyof British seamen.

" The storm gained its height at 2 P.M., when thebarometer stood at 28*40 inches, and after that timebegan'to rise. Although we had been forced manymiles deeper into the pack, we could not perceivethat the swell had at all subsided, our ships stillrolling and groaning amidst the heavy fragments ofcrushing bergs, over which the ocean rolled itsmountainous waves, throwing huge masses one uponanother, and then again burying them deep beneathits foaming waters, dashing and grinding themtogether with fearful violence."

For three successive years were these dangers en-countered during this bold and hazardous enterprise.

The ocean is one mass of water, which, enteringinto the interior of the continents, has formed seasand gulfs of great magnitude, which afford easy andrapid means of communication, while they temperthe climates of the widely expanding continents.

The inland seas communicating with the Atlanticare larger, and penetrate more deeply into the con-tinents, than those connected with the Great, Ocean ;a circumstance that gives a coast of 48,000 miles tothe former, while that of the Great Ocean is only44,000. Most of these internal seas have extensiveriver domains, so that by inland navigation theAtlantic virtually enters into the deepest recesses

VOL.. i. s


of the land, brings remote regions into contact, andimproves the condition of the less cultivated racesof mankind by commercial intercourse with thosethat are more civilised.

The Baltic, which occupies 125,000 square milesin the centre of northern Europe, is one of the mostimportant of the inland seas connected with theAtlantic ; and although inferior to the others insize, the drainage of more than a fifth of Europeflows into it. Only about a fourth part of theboundary of its enormous basin of 900,000 squaremiles is mountainous ; and so many navigable riversflow into it from the watershed of the great Europeanplain, that its waters are one-fifth less salt than thoseof the Atlantic: it receives at least 250 streams.Its depth nowhere exceeds 115 fathoms, and gene-rally it is not more than 40 or 50. From that cause,together with its freshness and northern latitude, theBaltic is frozen five months in the year. From theflatness of the greater part of the adjacent country,the climate of the Baltic is subject to influencescoming from regions far beyond the limits of itsriver-basin. The winds from the Atlantic bringwarmth and moisture, which, condensed by the coldblasts from the Arctic plains, falls in rain in summer,and deep snow in winter, which also makes the seamore fresh. The tides are imperceptible; but thewaters of the Baltic occasionally rise more than threefeet above their usual level from some unknowncause—possibly from oscillations in its bed, or fromchanges of atmospheric pressure.

INLAND SEAS. 259

The Black Sea, which penetrates most deeply intothe continent of all the seas in question, has, togetherwith the Sea of Azow, an area of 190,000 squaremiles; but it must at a remote period have beenunited with the Caspian Lake, and must have coveredall the steppe of Astracan. It receives some of thelargest European rivers, and drains about 950,000square miles ; consequently its waters are brackish,and freeze on its northern shores in winter.

Of all the branches of the Atlantic that enterdeeply into the bosom of the land, the Mediterraneanis the most beautiful and the largest, covering withits dark blue waters more than 760,000 square miles.Situate in a comparatively low latitude, exposed tothe heat of the African deserts on the south, andsheltered on the north by the Alps, the evaporationis excessive. Its temperature is 10° or 12° higherthan that of the Atlantic. Although its own riverdomain is only 250,000 square miles, the constantcurrent that sets into it through the Dardanellesbrings a great part of the drainage of the Black Sea,so that it is really fed by the melted snow and riversfrom the Caucasus, Asia Minor, Abyssinia, the Atlas,and the Alps. Yet the quantity of water that flowsinto the Mediterranean from the Atlantic by thecentral current in the Straits of Gibraltar exceedsthat which goes out by the lateral ones. In conse-quence of the excessive evaporation, the water of theMediterranean is four times as salt as that of theocean.

The Mediterranean is divided into two basins bys2


a shallow that runs from Cape Bon on the Africancoast to the Strait of Messina, on each side of whichthe water is exceedingly deep, and said to be unfa-thomable in some parts. This sea is not absolutelywithout tides : in the Gulf of Venice they rise tothree feet, and at the Great Syrte to five at new andfull moon ; but in most other places they are scarcelyperceptible. The surface is traversed by variouscurrents; two of which, opposing one another, occa-sion the celebrated whirlpool of Charybdis, whoseterrors were much diminished by the earthquake of1783. Its bed is subject to violent volcanic pa-roxysms ; and its surface is studded with islands ofall sizes, from the magnificent kingdom of Sicily tomere barren rocks; some actively volcanic, othersof volcanic formation, and many of the secondarygeological period.

Various parts of its coasts are in a state of greatinstability ; in some places they have sunk downand risen again more than once within historicalrecord.

Far to the north the Atlantic penetrates the Ame-rican continent by Davis's Straits, and spreads outinto Baffin's Bay, twice the size of the Baltic, verydeep, and subject to all the rigours of an arcticwinter—the very storehouse of icebergs, the abodeof the walrus and whale. Hudson's Bay, thoughwithout the Arctic circle, is but little less dreary.

Very different is the character of those vast seaswhere the Atlantic comes " cranking in " betweenthe northern and southern continents of America.

INLAND SEAS. 261

The surface of the sea in Baffin's Bay is seldomabove the freezing point; here, on the contrary, it isalways 89° of Fahrenheit; while the Atlantic Ocean,in the same latitude, is not above 77° or 78°. Ofthat huge mass of water partially separated from theAtlantic by a long line of islands and banks, theCaribbean Sea is the largest. It is as long fromeast to west as the distance between Great Britainand Newfoundland, and occupies a million of squaremiles. Its depth is very great in many places, andits water limpid. The Gulf of Mexico, fed by theMississippi, one of the greatest of rivers, is morethan half its size, or about 625,000 square miles,so that the whole forms a sea of great magnitude.Its shores, and the shores of the numerous islands,are dangerous from shoals and coral reefs; but theinterior of these seas is not. The trade winds pre-vail there; they are subject to severe northerngales ; and some parts are occasionally visited bytremendous hurricanes.

The Pacific does not penetrate the land in thesame manner that the Atlantic does the continentof Europe. The Red Sea and Persian Gulf arejoined to it by very narrow straits ; but almost allthe internal seas on the eastern coast of Asia, exceptthe Yellow Sea, are great gulfs shut in by islands,like the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico : towhich the China Sea (the Toung-Hai), the Sea ofJapan, and that of Okhotsk, are perfectly analogous.

The set of the great oceanic currents has scoopedout and indented the southern and eastern coasts of


the Asiatic continent into enormous bays and gulfs,and has separated large portions of the land, whichnow remain as islands—a process which probably hasbeen increased by the submarine fires extendingalong the eastern coast from the equator nearly tothe Arctic circle.

The perpetual motion of the ocean by winds,tides, and currents, is continually but slowly changingthe form and position of the land—steadily producingthose vicissitudes on the surface of the earth to whichit has been subject for ages, and to which it willassuredly be liable in all time to come.

( 263 )

CHAPTER XVI.

SPRINGS — BASINS OF THE OCEAN—ORIGIN, COURSE, AND

FLOODS OF RIVERS—HYDRAULIC SYSTEMS OF EUROPE—

AFRICAN RIVERS : THE NILE, NIGER, ETC.

T H E vapour which rises invisibly from the land andwater ascends in the atmosphere till it is condensedby the cold into clouds, which restore it again tothe earth in the form of rain, hail, and snow : hencethere is probably not a drop of water on the globethat has not been borne on the wings of the wind.Part of this moisture restored to the earth is re-absorbed by the air, part supplies the wants ofanimal and vegetable life, a portion is carried off by-streams, and the remaining part percolates throughporous soils till it arrives at a stratum impervious towater, where it accumulates in subterranean lakesoften of great extent. The mountains receive thegreatest portion of the aerial moisture, and, from themany alternations of permeable and impermeablestrata they contain, a complete system of reservoirsis formed in them, which, continually overflow-ing, form perennial springs at different elevations,that unite and run down their sides in incipientrivers. A great portion of the water at these highlevels penetrates the earth till it comes to an im-permeable stratum below the plains, where it collects


in a sheet, and is forced by hydrostatic pressure torise in springs through cracks in the ground to thesurface. In this manner the water which falls onhills and mountains is carried through highly in-clined strata to great depths, and even below thebed of the ocean, in many parts of which there aresprings of fresh water. In boring artesian wellsthe water often rushes up with such impetuosity bythe hydrostatic pressure as to form jets 40 or 50feet high. In this operation several successive re-servoirs have been met with: at St. Ouen, in France,five sheets of water were found : the water in the fourfirst not being good, the operation was continued toa greater depth. I t consists merely in boring a holeof small diameter, and lining it with a tube. Itrarely happens that water may not be procured inthis way; and as the substratum in many parts ofdeserts is an argillaceous marl, it is probable thatartesian wells might be bored with success.

A spring will be intermittent when it issues froman opening in the side of a reservoir fed from aboveif the supply be not equal to the waste, for the waterwill sink below the opening, and the spring willstop till the reservoir is replenished. Few springsgive the same quantity of water at all times; theyalso vary much in the quantity of foreign matterthey contain. Mountain springs are generally verypure; the carbonic acid gas almost always found inthem goes into the atmosphere, and their earthymatter is deposited as they run along, so that river-water from such sources is soft, while wells and

SPRINGS. 265

springs in the plains are hard and more or lessmineral.

The water of springs takes its temperature fromthat of the strata through which it passes. Moun-tain springs are cold, but, if the water has penetrateddeep into the earth, it acquires a temperature de-pending on that circumstance.

The temperature of the surface of the earth varieswith the seasons to a certain depth, where it be-comes permanent and equal to the mean annual tem-perature of the air above. It is evident that thedepth at which this stratum of invariable tempera-ture lies must vary with the latitude. At theequator the effect of the seasons is imperceptibleat the depth of a foot below the surface ; betweenthe parallels of 40° and 52° the temperature of theground in Europe is constant at the depth of from55 to 60 feet; and in the high Arctic regions thesoil is perpetually frozen a foot below the surface.Now, in every part of the world where experimentshave been made, the temperature of the earth in-creases with the depth below the constant stratumat the rate of 1° of Fahrenheit for every 50 or60 feet of perpendicular depth : hence, should theincrease continue to follow the same ratio, evengranite must be in fusion at little more than five milesbelow the surface. In Siberia the stratum of frozenearth is some hundred feet thick, but below that theincrease of heat with the depth is three times asrapid as in Europe. The temperature of springsmust therefore depend on the depth to which the


water has penetrated before it has been forced to thesurface either by the hydraulic pressure of water athigher levels or by steam. If it never goes belowthe stratum of invariable temperature, the heat ofthe spring will vary with the seasons more or lessaccording to the depth below the surface : shouldthe water come from the constant stratum itself, itstemperature will be invariable ; and if from below it,the heat will be in proportion to the depth to whichit has penetrated. Thus there may be hot and evenboiling springs hundreds of miles distant from vol-canic action and volcanic strata, of which there aremany examples, though they are more frequent involcanic countries and those subject to earthquakes.The temperature of hot springs is very constant, andthat of boiling springs has remained unchanged forages: shocks of earthquakes sometimes affect theirtemperature, and have even stopped them altogetherJets of steam of high tension are frequent in volcaniccountries, as in Iceland.

Both hot and cold water dissolves and combineswith many of the mineral substances it meets within the earth, and comes to the surface from greatdepths as medicinal springs, containing various in-gredients. So numerous are they that in the Austriandominions alone there are 1500, and few coun-tries of any extent are destitute of them. Theycontain sulphuric and carbonic acids, sulphur, iron,magnesia, and other matters. Boiling springs depositsilex, as in Iceland, Italy, and in the Azores; andothers of lower temperature deposit carbonate and

RIVERS. 267

sulphate of lime in enormous quantities all over theworld. Springs of pure brine are very rare; thosein Cheshire are rich in salt, and have flowed un-changed 1000 years, a proof of the tranquil state ofthat part of the globe. Many substances that liebeyond our reach are brought to the surface bysprings, as naphtha, petroleum, and borax ; petroleumis particularly abundant in Persia, and numberlesssprings and lakes of it surround some parts of theCaspian Sea. It is found in immense quantities invarious parts of the world.

RIVERS.

Rivers have had a greater influence in the locationand fortunes of the human race than almost anyother physical cause; and since their velocity hasbeen overcome by steam navigation, they have be-come the highway of the nations.

They frequently rise in lakes which they unitewith the sea; in other instances they spring fromsmall elevations in the plains, from perennial sourcesin the mountains, alpine lakes, melted snow, andglaciers, but the everlasting storehouses of themightiest floods are the iceclad mountains of table-lands.

Rivers are constantly increased, in descending themountains and traversing the plains, by tributaries,till at last they flow into the ocean, their ultimatedestination and remote origin. " All rivers run intothe sea, yet the sea is not full," because it gives inevaporation an equivalent for what it receives.


The Atlantic, the Arctic, and the Pacific Oceans,are directly or indirectly the recipients of all therivers, therefore their basins are bounded by theprincipal watersheds of the continents; for thebasin of a sea or ocean does not mean only the bedactually occupied by the water, but comprehendsalso all the land drained by the rivers which fallinto it, and is bounded by an imaginary line passingthrough all their sources. These lines generallyrun' through the elevated parts of a country thatdivide the streams which flow in one direction fromthose that flow in another. But the watershed doesnot coincide in all cases Avith mountain-crests ofgreat elevation, as the mere convexity of a plain isoften sufficient to throw the streams into differentdirections.

None of the European rivers flowing directlyinto the Atlantic exceed the 4th or 5th magnitude,except the Rhine ; the rest of the principal streamscome to it indirectly through the Baltic, the BlackSea, and the Mediterranean. I t nevertheless drainsnearly half of the old continent, and almost all thenew, because the Andes and Rocky Mountains,which form the watershed of the American con-tinent, lie along its western side, and the riverswhich rise on the western slope of the Alleghaniesare tributaries to the Mississippi, which comes in-directly into the Atlantic by the Gulf of Mexico.

The Arctic Ocean drains the high northern lati-tudes of America, and receives those magnificentSiberian rivers that originate in the Altai range

COURSE OF RIVERS. 269

from the steppe of the Kerghis to the extremity ofKamtschatka, as well as the very inferior streams ofnorth European Russia. The running waters ofthe rest of the world merge in the Pacific. TheCaspian and Lake of Aral are mere lakes, whichreceive rivers but emit none.

Mountain-torrents gradually lose velocity in theirdescent to the low lands by friction, and when theyenter the plains their course becomes still moregentle, their beds smoother, and their depth greater.A slope of one foot in 200 prevents a river frombeing navigable, and a greater inclination forms arapid or a cataract. The speed, however, does notdepend upon the slope alone, but also upon theheight of the source of the river, and the pressureof the body of water in the upper part of itscourse ; consequently, under the same circum-stances, large rivers run faster than small, but ineach individual stream the velocity is perpetuallyvarying with the form of the banks, the winding ofthe course, and the changes in the width of thechannel. The Rhone, one of the most rapid Euro-pean rivers, has a declivity of one foot in 2620, andflows at the rate of 120 feet in a minute; the sluggishrivers in Flanders have only half that velocity.The Danube, the Tigris, and Indus are among themost rapid of the large rivers.

When one river falls into another, the depth andvelocity are increased, but not always proportionallyto the width of the channel, which sometimes evenbecomes less, as at the junction of the Ohio with


the Mississippi. "When the angle of junction isvery obtuse, and the velocity of the tributary streamgreat, it sometimes forces the water of its primaryto recede a short distance. The Arve, swollen bya freshet, occasionally drives the water of the Rhoneback into the Lake of Geneva; and it once hap-pened that the force was so great as to make themill-wheels revolve in a contrary direction.

Instances have occurred of rivers suddenly stop-ping in their course for some hours, and leaving'their channels dry. On the 26th of November,1838, the water failed so completely in the Clyde,Nith, and Tiviot, that the mills were stopped eighthours in the lower part of their streams. Thecause was the coincidence of a gale of wind and astrong frost, which congealed the water near theirsources. Exactly the contrary happens in the Sibe-rian rivers, which flow from south to north over somany hundreds of miles; the upper parts are thawed,while the lower are still frozen, and the water, notfinding an outlet, inundates the country.

The alluvial soil carried down by streams isgradually deposited as their velocity diminishes ; andif they are subject to inundations, and the coast flat,it forms deltas at their mouths. There they generallydivide into branches, which often join again, or areunited by transverse channels, so that a labyrinthof streams and islands is formed. Deltas are some-times found in the interior of the continents, at thejunction of rivers, exactly similar to those on theocean, though less extensive.

FLOODS OF RIVERS. 2 7 1

Tides flow up rivers to a great distance, and to aheight far above the level of the sea. The tide isperceptible in the river of the Amazons 576 milesfrom its mouth, and it ascends 255 miles in theOrinoco.

In the temperate zones rivers are subject to floodsfrom autumnal rains and the melting of the snow,especially on mountain ranges. The Po, for ex-ample, spreads desolation far and wide over theplains of Lombardy; but these torrents are asvariable in their recurrence and extent as the cli-mate which produces them. The inundations of therivers in the torrid zone, on the contrary, occur withthat regularity peculiar to a region in which me-teoric phenomena are uniform in all their changes.These floods are clue to the periodical rains which, intropical countries, follow the cessation of the trade-winds after the equinox of spring and at the turnof the monsoons, and are thus dependent on thedeclination of the sun, the immediate cause of allthese variations. The melting of the snow, nodoubt, adds greatly to the floods of the tropicalrivers which rise in the high mountain-chains, but itis only an accessory circumstance ; for although thesnow-water from the Himalaya swells the streamsconsiderably before the rains begin, yet the principaleffect is owing to the latter, as the southern face ofthe Himalaya is not beyond the influence of themonsoon, and the consequent periodical rains, whichbesides prevail all over the plains of India traversedby the great rivers and their tributaries.


Under like circumstances, the floods of rivers,whose sources have the same tropical latitude, takeplace at the same season; but the periods of theinundations of rivers on one side of the equator areexactly the contrary of what they are in rivers onthe other side of it, on account of the declination ofthe sun. The flood in the Orinoco is at its greatestheight in the month of August, while that of the riverof the Amazons, south of the equinoctial line, is at itsgreatest elevation in March.* The commencementand end of the annual inundations in each riverdepend upon the mean time of the beginning, andon the duration of the rains in the latitudes tra-versed by its affluents. The periods of the floods ofsuch rivers as run towards the equator are differentfrom those flowing in an opposite direction; and asthe swell requires time to travel, it happens at regu-lar but different periods in various parts of the sameriver, if very long. The height to which the waterrises in the annual floods depends upon the natureof the country, but it is wonderfully constant ineach individual river where the course is long; forthe inequalities in the quantity of rain in a districtdrained by any of its affluents is imperceptible inthe general flood, and thus the quantity of watercarried down is a measure of the mean humidity ofthe whole country comprised in its basin from yearto year, By the admirable arrangement of theseperiodical inundations, the fresh soil of the moun-

* Baron Humboldt's Personal Narrative.

BIFURCATION OF RIVERS. 273

tains, borne down by the water, enriches countriesfar remote from their source. The mountains ofthe Moon, and of Abyssinia, have fertilized thebanks of the Nile through a distance of 2500 milesfor thousands of years.

When rivers rise in mountains, water communi-cation between them in the upper parts of theircourse is impossible; but when they descend to theplains, or rise in the low lands, the boundaries be-tween the countries drained by them become low,and the different systems may be united by canals.I t sometimes happens, in extensive and very levelplains, that the tributaries of the principal streamseither unite or are connected by a natural canal, bywhich a communication is formed between the twobasins—a circumstance advantageous to the navigationand commerce of both, especially where the junctiontakes place far inland, as in the Orinoco and Amazons,in the interior of South America. The Rio Negro,one of the largest affluents of the latter, is united tothe Upper Orinoco, in the plains of Esmeralda, by theCassiquiare—a stream as large as the Rhine, witha velocity of 12 feet in a second. Baron Hum-boldt observes that the Orinoco sending a branch tothe Amazons is, with regard to distance, as if theRhine should send one to the Seine or Loire. Atsome future period this junction will be of greatimportance. These bifurcations are frequent in thedeltas of rivers, but very rare in the interior of con-tinents. The Mahomuddy and Gadavery, in Hin-dostan, seem to have something of the kind, and

VOL. I. T


there are several instances in the great rivers of theIndo-Chinese peninsula.

The hydraulic system of Europe is eminentlyfavourable to inland navigation, small as the riversare in comparison with those in other parts of theworld; but the flatness of the great plain, and thelowness of its watershed, are very favourable to theconstruction of canals. In the west, however, theAlps and German mountains divide the waters thatflow to the Atlantic on one side, and to the Medi-terranean and the Black Sea on the other; but inthe eastern parts of Europe the division of thewaters is merely a more elevated ridge of the plainitself, for in all plains such undulations exist, thoughoften imperceptible to the eye. This watershed beginson the northern declivity of the Carpathian Moun-tains, about the 23rd meridian, on a low range ofhills running between the sources of the Dnieper andthe tributaries of the Vistula, from whence it windsin a tortuous course along the plain to the Valdaytable-land, which is its highest point, 1200 feetabove the sea. I t then declines northward towardsOnega, about the 60th parallel, and lastly turns ina very serpentine line to the sources of the Kama,in the Ural Mountains, near the 62nd degree ofnorth latitude. The waters north of this line runinto the Baltic and White Sea, and on the south ofit into the Black Sea and the Caspian.

Thus Europe is divided into two principal hydrau-lic systems ; but since the basin of a river compre-hends all the plains and valleys drained by it and

HYDKAULIC SYSTEM OF EUROPE. 2 7 5

its tributaries, from its source to the sea, each coun-try is subdivided into as many natural divisions orbasins as it has primary rivers, and these generallycomprise all the rich and habitable parts of theearth, and are the principal centres of civilization, orare capable of becoming so.

The streams to the north of the general watershedare very numerous; those to the south are of greatermagnitude. The systems of the Volga and Danubeare the most extensive in Europe : the former has abasin comprising 640,000 square miles, and is navi-gable throughout the greater part of its course of1900 miles.

The Danube drains 300,000 square miles, and has60 navigable tributaries. It rises in the BlackForest at an elevation of 3000 feet above the levelof the sea, so that it has considerable velocity, which,as well as rocks and rapids, impede its navigation inmany places ; but it is navigable downwards, throughAustria, for 600 miles to New Orsova, from whenceit flows in a gentle current to the Black Sea. Thecommercial importance of these two rivers is muchincreased by their flowing into inland seas. Bycanals between the Volga and the rivers north ofthe watershed, the Baltic and White Seas are con-nected with the Black Sea and the Caspian, and theBaltic and Black Sea are also connected by a canalbetween the Don and the Dnieper. Altogether thewater system of Russia is the most extensive inEurope.

The whole of Holland is a collection of deltoidT 2


islands, formed by the Rhine, the Meuse, and theScheldt; a structure very favourable to commerce,and has facilitated an extensive internal navigation.The Mediterranean is already connected with theNorth Sea by the junction canal of the Rhone and theRhine, and this noble system, extended over thewhole of France by 7591 miles of canals, has con-duced mainly to the improved state of that greatcountry.

Many navigable streams rise in the Spanish moun-tains : of these the Tagus has depth enough for thelargest ships. In point of magnitude, however, manyare of the inferior orders, but canals have ren-dered them beneficial to the country. Italy is lessfortunate in her rivers, which only admit of vesselsof small burthen. Those in the north are by muchthe most important, especially the Po and its tribu-taries, which, by steam-boats, connect Venice andMilan with various fertile provinces of central Italy;but whatever advantages nature has afforded to theItalian states have been improved by able engineers,both in ancient and modern times.

The application of the science of hydraulics torivers took its rise in northern Italy, which has beencarried to such perfection in some points that Chinais the only country which can vie with it in thepractice of irrigation. The lock on canals was inuse in Lombardy as early as the 13th century, andin the end of the 14th it was applied to two canalswhich unite the Ticino to the Adda by that greatartist and philosopher Leonardo da Vinci: about the

HYDRAULIC SYSTEM OF EUROPE. 277

same time he introduced the use of the lock intoFrance.

Various circumstances combine to make the Bri-tish rivers more useful than many others of greatermagnitude. The larger streams are not encumberedwith rocks or rapids; they all run into branches ofthe Atlantic; the tides flow up their channels to aconsiderable distance; and above all, though shortin their course, they end in wide gulfs, capable ofcontaining whole navies—a circumstance that givesan importance to streams otherwise utterly insigni-ficant when compared either with the great rivers ofthe old or new continent.

The Thames, whose basin is only 5027 squaremiles, and whose length is but 240 miles, of whichhowever 204 are navigable, spreads its influence overthe remotest parts of the earth ; its depth is suffi-cient to admit large vessels even up to London, andthroughout its navigable course a continued forestof masts display the flags of every nation ; its banks,which are in a state of perfect cultivation, are theseat of the highest civilization, moral and political.Local circumstances have undoubtedly been favour-able to this superior development, but the earnestand energetic temperament of the Saxon race hasrendered the advantages of their position available.The same may be said of other rivers in the Britishislands, vying in commercial activity with theThames. There are 2789 miles of canal in Britain,and, including rivers, 5430 miles of inland navigation,


which, in comparison with the size of the country,is very great; it is even said that no part of Eng-land is more than 15 miles distant from water com-munication.

On the whole, Europe is fortunate with regard toits water systems, and its inhabitants are for the mostpart alive to the bounties which Providence has be-stowed.

AFRICAN RIVERS.

In Africa the tropical climate and the extremesof aridity and moisture give a totally different cha-racter to its rivers. The most southerly part is com-paratively destitute of them, and those that do existare of inferior size, except the Orange River orGareep, which has a long course on the table-land,but is nowhere navigable. There is a region of nu-merous rivers between the 18th degree of south lati-tude and the equator. They rise in two great water-sheds on the table-land, from one of which they go tothe Mosambique Channel and Indian Ocean, and fromthe other they flow to the Atlantic. The first isthe range of the mountains of Nyassi, and the highlands that surround the south end of the great lakeof that name, 350 miles from Mozambique. Fromthence all those streams come that flow over the richplains of Mozambique and Zanguebar. Of these theZambeze is probably the greatest, and is said to havea course of 900 miles, navigable for 200 or 300from its mouth. Many other rivers are naviga-

AFRICAN RIVERS. 279

ble along this coast, where grain ripens all theyear, yielding from 80 to 150 fold, and everyeastern production might be raised. The otherwatershed is a ridge of no great height, that runsfrom S.E. to N.W. on the table-land west of thedominions of the Zambeze. In it the numerous riversoriginate which, after falling in cascades and rapidsthrough the chains that border the table-land on thewest, fertilize the luxuriant maritime plains of Ben-guela, Congo, Angola, and Loango. • The Zaire, orCongo, by much the largest of these, is navigable for140 miles, where the ascent of the tide is stopped bycataracts. The lower course of this river is five orsix miles broad, full of islands, and 160 fathomsdeep at its mouth. Its upper course, like that ofmost of these rivers, is unknown; the greaternumber are fordable on the table-land, but, from theabrupt descent of the high country to the maritimeplains, none of them afford access to the interior ofsouth Africa.

The mountainous edge of the table-land, with itsterminal projections, Senegambia and Abyssinia,which separate the northern from the southerndeserts, is the principal source of running waterin Africa. Various rivers have their origin inthese mountainous regions, of which the Nile andthe Niger yield in size only to some of the greatAsiatic and American rivers; in importance and his-torical interest the Nile is inferior to none.

Two large rivers unite their streams to form theNile—the Bahr-el-Abiad or White Nile and the


Bahr-el-Azrek or Blue Nile, but the sources andcourse of the White Nile are yet unknown : it issaid to rise in Donga, in the Mountains of theMoon ; and the Blue Nile in Abyssinia, in the table-land of Dembea, in the mountains that separateTigre from Amhara, 10,000 feet above the sea.These two rivers converge during a long and oftenturbulent course, and unite at last in the plains ofSennaar.

The Tecazze, the largest affluent, issues from themountains of Lasta, and is the chief river in thekingdom of Tigre. Its affluents fall in cascadesfrom 100 to 150 feet high, and it takes its nameof Tecazze or " The Terrible " from the impetuositywith which it rushes through the chasms and overthe precipices of the mountains. I t joins the mainstream in 11° 35' N . lafc., from whence down to theMediterranean, a distance of 1200 miles, the Niledoes not receive a single brook. The first part ofthe Nile's course is interrupted by cataracts, fromthe geological structure of the Nubian desert, whichconsists of a succession of broad sterile terraces,separated by ranges of rocks running east and west.Over these the Nile runs in nine or ten cataracts,the last of which is at Syene, where it enters Egypt.Most of them are only rapids, where each successivefall of water is not a foot high. That they werehigher at a former period has recently been ascer-tained by Dr. Lepsius, the very intelligent traveller,sent by the King of Prussia at the head of a mis-sion to explore that country. He found a series of

THE NILE. 281

inscriptions on the rocks in Sennaar, marking theheight of the Nile at different periods; and it appearsfrom these that in that country the bed of the riverhad been 30 feet higher than it is now.

Fifteen miles below Cairo, and 90 miles from thesea, the Nile is divided into two branches, of which,one, running in a northerly direction, enters theMediterranean below Rosetta; the other, cuttingLower Egypt into two nearly equal parts, enters thesea above Damietta; so that the delta between thesetwo places has a sea-coast of 150 miles.

The basin of the Nile, occupying an area of 500,000square miles, has an uncommon form : it is wide inEthiopia and Nubia ; but for the greater part of awinding course of 2750 miles it is merely a verdant lineof the softest beauty, suddenly and strongly contrastedwith the dreary waste of the Red desert. Extendingfrom the equatorial far into the temperate zone, itsaspect is less varied than might have been expectedon account of the parched and showerless countryit passes through. Nevertheless, from the greatelevation of the origin of the river, the upperpart has a perpetual spring, though within a fewdegrees of the equator. At the foot of the table-land of Abyssinia the country is covered with densetropical jungles, while the rest of the valley is richsoil, the detritus of the mountains for thousands ofyears.

As the mean velocity of the Nile, when not inflood, is about two miles and a half an hour, a particleof water would take twenty-two days and a half to


descend from the junction of the Tecazze to the sea;hence the retardation of the annual inundations ofthe Nile in its course is a peculiarity of this river,owing to some unknown cause towards its originwhich affects the whole stream. In Abyssinia andSennaar the river begins to swell in April, yet theflood is not sensible at Cairo till towards the summersolstice; it then continues to rise about a hundred days,and remains at its greatest height till the middle ofOctober, when it begins to subside, and arrives at itslowest point in April and May. The height of theflood in Upper Egypt varies from 30 to 35 feet; atCairo it is 23, and in the northern part of the Deltaonly 4 feet.

Anubis, or Sirius, the Dog-star, was worshippedby the Egyptians, from its supposed influence on therising of the Nile. According to Champolion, theircalendar commenced when the heliacal rising of thatstar coincided with the summer solstice, the time atwhich the Nile began to swell at Cairo. Now thiscoincidence made the nearest approach to accuracy3291 years before the Christian era; and as therising of the river still takes place precisely at thesame time and in the same manner, it follows thatthe heat and periodical rains in Upper Ethiopia havenot varied for 5000 years. In the time of Hip-parch us the summer solstice was in the sign of Leo;and probably about that period the flowing of thefountains from the mouths of lions of basalt andgranite was adopted, as emblematical of the pouringforth of the floods of the Nile. The emblem is still

THE NIGER. 283

common in Rome, though its origin is probably for-gotten ; and the signs of the zodiac have movedbackwards more than 30°.

The two greatest African rivers, the Nile and theNiger, are dissimilar in almost every circumstance ;the Nile, discharging itself for ages into a sea, thecentre of commerce and civilization, has been re-nowned by the earliest historians, sacred and profane,for the exuberant fertility of its banks, and for thelearning and wisdom of their inhabitants, who haveleft magnificent and imperishable monuments of theirpower and genius. It was for ages the seat ofscience, and by the Red Sea it had intercourse withthe most highly cultivated nations of the East fromtime immemorial. The Niger, on the contrary,though its rival in magnitude, and running througha country glowing with all the brilliancy of tropicalvegetation, has ever been inhabited by barbarous orsemi-barbarous nations ; and its course till lately waslittle known, as its source still is. In early ages,before the pillars of Hercules had been passed, andindeed long afterwards, the Atlantic coast of Africawas an unknown region ; and thus the flowing of theNiger into that lonely ocean kept the natives in theiroriginal rude state. Such are the effects of localcircumstances on the intellectual advancement ofman.

The sources of the Niger, Joliba, or Quorra, aresupposed to be on the northern side of the KongMountains, in the country of Bambarra, more than1600 feet above the level of the sea. From thence


it goes north, and, after passing through Lake Debo,makes a wide circuit in the plains of Soudan toTimbuctoo, through eight or nine degrees of latitude;then bending round, it again approaches the KongMountains, at the distance of 1000 miles in a straightline from its source ; and having threaded them, itflows across the low lands into the Gulf of Guinea,a course of 2300 miles. In the plains of Soudan itreceives many very large affluents from the highland of Senegambia on the west; and the Chadda onthe east—a navigable river larger than itself, theoutlet of the great Lake Chad, which drains the loftyKomri, or Mountains of the Moon—falls into it alittle below Fandah after a course of some hundredmiles : thus it affords an uninterrupted water com-munication from the Atlantic to the heart of Africa.Long before leaving the plains of Soudan the Nigerbecomes a noble river, with a smooth stream, glidingat the rate of from five to eight miles an-hour,varying in breadth from one to eight miles. Itsbanks are studded with densely populous townsand villages, groves of palm-trees and cultivatedfields.

This great river divides into three branches nearthe head of a delta which is equal in area to thewhole of Ireland, intersected by navigable branchesof the principal stream in every direction. The soilis rich mould, and the vegetation so rank that thetrees seem to grow out of the water. The Nun,which is the principal or central branch, flows intothe sea near Cape Formosa, and is that which the

THE NIGER. 285

brothers Lander descended. There are, however,six rivers which run into the Bight of Benin, allcommunicating with the Niger and with one another.The Old Calabar is the most eastern ; it rises in thehigh land of the Cal bongos, and is united to theNiger by a natural canal. The Niger throughoutits long winding course lies entirely within thetropic of Cancer, and is consequently subject toperiodical inundations, which reach their greatestheight in August, about 40 or 50 days after thesummer solstice. The plains of Soudan are thencovered with water and crowded by boats. Thesefertile regions are inaccessible to Europeans fromthe pernicious climate, and dangerous from thesavage condition of many of the tribes.

The coast of Guinea west from the Niger iswatered by many streams of no great magnitudefrom the Kong Mountains. The table-land of Sene-gambia is the origin of the Rio Grande, the Gambia,the Senegal, and others of great size, and also manyof an inferior order that fertilise the luxuriant mari-time plains on the Atlantic. Their navigable courseis cut short by a semicircular chain of mountainswhich forms the western boundary of the high landthrough which they thread their way in rapids andcataracts. The Gambia rises in Foula Toro, andafter a course of about 600 miles enters the Atlanticby many branches connected by natural channels,supposed at one time to be separate rivers. TheSenegal, the largest river in this part of Africa, is


850 miles long. I t receives many tributaries in theupper part of its course, and in the lower is full ofislands. I t drains two lakes, has several accessories,and is united to the basin of the Gambia by the riverNeriho.

( 287 )

CHAPTER XVII.

ASIATIC RIVERS—EUPHRATES AND TIGRIS—RIVER SYSTEMS

SOUTH OF THE HIMALAYA CHINESE RIVERS—SIBERIANRIVERS.

THE only river system of importance in westernAsia is that of the Euphrates and Tigris. In thebasin of these celebrated streams, containing an areaof 230,000 square miles, mounds of rubbish on adesolate plain are the only vestiges that remain ofthe great cities of Nineveh and Babylon. Innumer-able ruins and inscriptions, also records of the gloryof times less remote, have been discovered by ad-venturous travellers, and bear testimony to thetruth of some of the most interesting pages ofhistory. The Euphrates, and its affluent the Merad-Chai, supposed to be the stream forded as the Eu-phrates by the 10,000 Greeks in their retreat, rise inthe heart of Armenia, and, after running 1800 mileson the table-land to 38° 41' of north latitude, theyjoin the northern branch of the Euphrates, whichrises in the Gheul Mountains, near Erzeroum. Thewhole river then descends in rapids through theTaurus chain, north of Rumkala, to the plains ofMesopotamia.

The Tigris comes from Dearbeker, more to theeast, and, after receiving auxiliaries from the highlands of Kourdistan, it pierces the Taurus Mountains


at Mosul, and descends rapidly in a tortuous courseto the same plains, where it is joined by manystreams from the Lusistan Mountains, some-of whichare navigable, and may ultimately be of great com-mercial importance. The country through whichthey flow is extremely beautiful, and rich in corn,date-groves, and forest-trees. Near the city ofBagdad, the two rivers, approaching, surround theplain of Mesopotamia, unite at Koona, and run 150miles in one stream to the Persian Gulf, under thename of Chat-el-Arab. The banks of the Tigrisand Euphrates are quite desolate, alternately vastswamps or burnt up, and in many parts coveredwith brushwood or grass. The remains of numerouscanals, joining these great rivers and their affluents,show the former magnitude of this most ancientwater system. The floods of this river are veryregular in their periods ; they begin in March, andattain their greatest height in June.

The Persian Gulf may be navigated by steam allthe year, the Euphrates only eight months; it mighthowever afford easy intercourse with eastern Asia,as it did in former times. The distance from Aleppoto Bombay by the Euphrates is 2870 miles, of which2700, from Bir to Bombay, are by water; in thetime of Queen Elizabath this was the common routeto India, and a fleet was then kept at Bir expresslyfor that navigation.

Five systems of rivers of the first magnitudedescend from the central table-land of eastern Asiaand its mountain barriers, all different in origin,

ASIATIC RIVERS. 289

direction, and character, while they convey to theocean a greater volume of water than all the riversof the rest of the continent conjointly. Of these,the Indus, the double system of the Ganges andBrahmapootra, and the group of parallel rivers inthe Indo-Chinese peninsula, water the plains ofsouthern Asia; the great system of rivers thatdescend from the eastern terraces of the table-landirrigates the fertile lands of China ; and lastly, theSiberian rivers, not inferior to any in magnitude,carry the waters of the Altai to the Arctic Ocean.

The hard-fought battles and splendid victoriesrecently gained by British valour over a bold andwell-disciplined foe have added to the historical in-terest of the Indus and its tributary streams, nowthe boundaries of our Asiatic territories.

The sources of the Indus and Sutlej were onlyascertained in 1812 : the Ladak, the largest branchof the Indus, has its origin in the snowy moun-tains of Karakorum ; and the Shyook, which isthe smaller stream, rises in the Kentese or Kangrirange, a branch of the Himalaya, which extendsalong the table-land of Tibet, west of the sacredlake of Manasarora. These two streams join north-west of Ladak, and form the Indus; the Sutlej, itsprincipal tributary, springs from the sacred lakeitself. Both are fed by streams of melted snowfrom the northern side of the Himayala, and both flowwestward along the extensive longitudinal valleys ofTibet. The Sutlej breaks through the Himalayaabout the 75th meridian, and traverses the whole

VOL. i. u


breadth of the chain in frightful chasms and cleftsin the rocks to the plains of the Punjab ; the Indus,after continuing its course on the table-land throughseveral degrees of longitude farther, descends bythe Hindoo Coosh, west of the valley of Cashmere,to the same plain. Three tributaries, the Jelum orHydaspes, the Hydraoies, and the Chenab, all supe-rior to the Rhone in size, flow from the southernface of the Himalaya, and with the Sutlej join theIndus before it reaches Mittum ; hence the namePunjab, " the plain of the five rivers," now oneof our valuable possessions in the East. FromMittum to the ocean, the Indus, like the Nile,does not receive a single accessory, from the samecause—the sterility of the country through which itpasses. The Cabul river, which rises near Guzni,but is joined by a larger affluent from the lofty plainof Pamere, flows along the edge of the Persiantable-land, through picturesque and dangerous defiles,and forms the limit between eastern and westernAsia. It then joins the Indus at the town of Attock,and is the only tributary of any magnitude thatcomes from the west.

The Indus is not favourable to navigation : for 70miles after it leaves the mountains the descentin a boat is dangerous, and it is nowhere navigablefor steam-vessels of more than 30 inches draughtof water; yet, from the fertility of the Punjab, andthe near approach of its basin to that of the Gangesat the foot of the mountains, it must ultimately bea valuable acquisition, and the more especially

THE INDUS. 291

because it commands the principal roads betweenPersia and India, one through Cabul and Peshawerto Attock, and the other from Herat through Can-dahar to the same place. The delta of the Indus,formerly celebrated for its civilization, has longbeen a desert; but from the vitality of the soil, andthe change of political circumstances, it may againresume its pristine aspect. I t is 60 miles long, andpresents a face of 120 miles to the sea at the Gulf ofOman, where the river empties itself by many mouths,of which only three or four are navigable: oneonly can be entered by vessels of 50 tons, and allare liable to change. The tide ascends them withextraordinary rapidity for 75 miles, and so greatis the quantity of mud carried by it and the absorb-ing violence of the eddies, that a vessel wrecked onthe coast was buried in sand and mud in two tides.The annual floods begin with the melting of thesnow in the Himalaya in the end of April, come totheir height in July, and end in September. Thelength of this river is 1500 miles, and it drains anarea of 400,000 square miles.

The second group of south Indian rivers, andone of the greatest, is the double system of theGanges and Brahmapootra. These two rivers,though wide apart at their sources, converge to acommon delta, and constitute one of the most im-portant groups on the globe.

Mr. Alexander Elliot, of the Body Guard inBengal, son of Admiral Elliot, with his friends, arethe first who have accomplished the arduous expe-

u 2


dition to the sources of the Ganges. The riverflows at once in a very rapid stream not less than40 yards across, from a huge cave in a perpen-dicular wall of ice at the distance of about threemarches from the temple of Gungootree, to whichthe pilgrims resort. Mr. Elliot says, " The viewfrom the glacier was perfectly amazing; beautifulor magnificent is no word for it—it was really quiteastonishing. If you can fancy a bird's-eye view ofall the mountains in the world in one cluster, andevery one of them covered with snow, it wouldhardly give you an idea of the sight which presenteditself."

Many streams from the southern face of theHimalaya unite at Hurdwar to form the great bodyof the river. It flows from thence in a south-easterly direction through the plains of Bengal,receiving in its course the tribute of 19 or 20rivers, of which 12 are larger than the Ehine.About 220 miles in a direct line from the Bay ofBengal, into which the Ganges flows, the innu-merable channels and branches into which it splitsform an intricate maze over a delta twice as largeas that of the Nile.

The sources of the Brahmapootra, a river equalin volume to the Ganges, though not in length, aresome hundreds of miles distant from those of thelatter. They lie to the north of the Birman empire,but whether they spring from the eastern extremityof the Himalaya or from some snow-clad branch ofit is unknown. The upper course of the river

THE GANGES AND BRAHMAPOOTRA. 293

among the lofty defiles of the mountains is com-pletely zigzag, but soon after passing through thesacred pool of Brahma-Koond it enters the plainsof Upper Assam, and receives the name of Brah-mapootra—" the offspring of Brahma ;" the nativescall it the Lahit, Sanscrit for " red river." InUpper Assam, through which it winds 500 milesand forms some very extensive channel islands, itreceives six very considerable accessories, of whichthe origin is unknown, though some are supposed tocome from the table-land of Tibet. They are onlynavigable in the plains, but vessels of considerableburthen ascend the parent stream as high as Sampura.Before it enters the plains of Bengal, below Goyal-para, the Brahmapootra runs with rapidity in greatvolume, and, after receiving the river of Bhotan andother streams, its branches unite with those of theGanges about 40 miles from the coast, but the tworivers enter the sea by different mouths, though theysometimes approach within two miles. The lengthof the Brahmapootra is probably 860 miles, so thatit is 500 miles shorter than the Ganges: the volumeof water discharged by it during the dry season isabout 146,188 cubic feet in a second ; the quantity dis-charged by the Ganges in the same time and under thesame circumstances is only 80,000 cubic feet. In theperennial floods the quantity of water poured throughthe tributaries of the Brahmapootra from theirsnowy sources is incredible: the plains of UpperAssam are an entire sheet of water from the loth ofJune to the 15th of September, and there is no


communication but by elevated causeways eight orten feet high; the two rivers with their brancheslay the plain of Bengal under water for hundreds ofmiles annually. They begin first to sw,ell from themelting of the snow on the mountains; but beforetheir inferior streams overflow from that cause, allthe lower parts of Bengal adjacent to the Gangesand Brahmapootra are under water, from the swell-ing of these rivers by the rains. The increase isarrested before the middle of August by the cessa-tion of the rains in the mountains, though theycontinue to fall longer in the plains. The delta istraversed in every direction by arms of the rivers.The Hoogly branch, at all times navigable, passesCalcutta and Chandernagor; and the Hauringottaarm is also navigable, as well as the Ganges pro-perly so called. The channels, however, are per-petually changing, from the strength of the currentand the prodigious quantity of matter washed fromthe high lands ; the Ganges alone carries to thesea 600,000 cubic feet of mud in a second, theeffects of which are perceptible 60 miles from thecoast. The elevation of the mountains, and indeedof the land generally, must have been enormous,since it remains still so stupendous after ages ofsuch degradation. The Sunderbands, a congeriesof innumerable river islands formed by the endlessstreams and narrow channels of the rivers, as wellas by the indentations of arms of the sea, line thecoast of Bengal for 180 miles—a wilderness of jungleand heavy timber. The united streams of the

INDO-CHINESE RIVERS. 295

Ganges and Brahmapootra drain an area of 650,000square miles, but there is scarcely a spot in Bengalmore than 20 miles distant from a river navigableeven in the dry season.

These three great rivers of southern India donot differ more widely in their physical circum-stances than in the races of men who inhabit theirbanks, yet from their position they seem formed tounite nations the most varied in their aspect andspeech. The tributaries of the Ganges and Induscome so near to each other at the foot of the moun-tains, that a canal only two miles long would unitethem, and thus an inland navigation from the Bayof Bengal to the Gulf of Oman might be esta-blished.

An immense volume of water is poured in a seriesof nearly parallel rivers of great magnitude andstrength through the Indo-Chinese peninsula intothe ocean opposite the Sunda Archipelago. Theyrise in those elevated regions at the south-easternangle of the table-land of Tibet, the lofty but un-known provinces of the Chinese empire, and waterthe great valleys that extend nearly from north tosouth with perfect uniformity, between chains ofmountains no less uniform, which spread out like afan as they approach the sea. Scarcely anything isknown of the origin or upper parts of these rivers, andwith a few exceptions almost as little of the lower.

Their number amounts to six or seven, all large,though three surpass the rest—the Irriwaddy, whichwaters the Birman empire, and falls into the Bay of


Bengal at the Gulf of Martaban ; the Meinam orriver of Siam ; and the river of Cambodja, whichflows through the empire of Annam: the two last gointo the China Sea.

The sources of the Irriwaddy are in the samechain of mountains with those of the Brahmapootra,more to the south. Its course is through countrieshardly known to Europeans, but it seems to benavigable by boats before coming to the city ofAmarapoora, south of which it enters the finest andrichest plain of the empire, containing its fourcapital cities. There it receives two large affluents,one from the Chinese province of Yunnan, whichflows into the Irriwaddy at the city of Ava, 446miles from the sea, the highest point attained by theBritish force during the Birmese war.

From Ava to its delta the Irriwaddy is a mag-nificent river, more than four miles broad in someplaces, but encumbered with channel islands. Inthis part of its course it receives its largest tributary,and forms in its delta one of the most extensivesystems of internal navigation. The Rangoon isthe only one of its 14 mouths that is always navi-gable, and in it the commerce of the empire isconcentrated. The internal communication isextended by the junction of the two most navigabledeltoid branches with the rivers Salven and Pegu,by natural canals: that joining the former is 200miles long; the canal uniting the latter is only ser-viceable at high water.

The Meinam, one of the largest Asiatic rivers, is

INDO-CHINESE RIVERS. 297

less known than the Irriwaddy: it comes from theChinese province of Yunnan and runs through thekingdom of Siam, which it cuts into several islandsby many diverging branches, and enters the Gulfof Siam by three principal arms, the most easterlyof which forms the harbour of Bangkok. It isjoined to the Meinam Kong or Cambodja by thesmall river Anan-Myit.

The river of Cambodja has the longest course ofany in the peninsula; it is supposed to be theLang-thsang, which rises in the high land of K'ham,in eastern Asia, not far from the sources of the greatChinese river, the Yang-tsi-kiang. After traversingthe elevated plain of Yunnan, where it is navigable,it rushes through the mountain-barriers; and onreaching a wider valley, about 300 miles from itsmouth, it is joined to the Meinam by the naturalcanal of the Anan-Myit. More to the south it issaid to split into branches which unite again.

The ancient capital of Annam is situated on theCambodja, about 150 miles from the sea: a littleto the south its extensive delta begins, projects farinto the ocean, and is cut in all directions by armsof the river navigable during the floods ; three of itsmouths are permanently so for large vessels up tothe capital. The Sai-gon, more to the east, is muchshorter than the river of Cambodja, though said tobe 1000 miles long; but Europeans have notascended higher than the town of Sai-gon. Nearits mouth it sends off several branches to the easternarm of the Cambodja. All rivers of this part of


Asia are subject to periodical inundations, whichfertilize the plains at the expense of the mountains.

The parallelism of the mountain-chains constitutesformidable barriers between the upper basins of theIndo-Chinese rivers, and decided lines of separationbetween the inhabitants of the intervening valleys;but this inconvenience is in some degree compen-sated by the natural canals of junction and theextensive water communication towards the mouthsof the rivers.

" The Sons of the Ocean," a double system ofcolossal rivers which drain 1,400,000 square milesof the Chinese empire, rise in the two extensive andprincipal terraces on the eastern slope of the table-land of central Asia. The length of the Hoang-Ho is 2000 miles, that of the Yang-tsi-kang 2900.Though near at their beginning, they are widelyseparated north and south, as they proceed on theireastern course, by the mountain-chains that borderthe table-land ; but they again approach, and are notmore than 100 miles apart when they enter theWhang-Hai or Yellow Sea. They are united incentral China by innumerable canals, and form thegrandest and most extensive water system in ex-istence.

The Hoang-Ho brings down in one hour 2,000,000cubic feet of earth, whence, like the Tiber of old, itis called the " Yellow " Eiver.

Strong tides from the Pacific go up these rivers400 miles, and for the time prevent the descent ofthe fresh water, which forms large interior seas

CHINESE RIVERS. 299

frequented by thousands of trading-vessels, and theyirrigate the productive lands of central China, fromtime immemorial the most highly cultivated and themost densely peopled region of the globe.

Almost all the Chinese rivers of less note—andthey are numerous—feed these giant streams, withthe exception of the Ta-si-kiang, and the Pei-ho, orWhite River, which have their own basins. Theformer, rising to the east of the town of Yunnan,flows through the plains of Canton eastward to theGulf of Canton, into which it discharges itself,increased in its course by the Sekiang.

The White River, rising in the mountains nearthe great wall, becomes navigable a few miles eastof Pekin, unites with the Eu-ho, joins the greatcanal, and, as the tide ascends it for 80 miles, it iscrowded with shipping.

Four great rivers, the Amur, the Lena, theYenessee, and the double system of the Irtish andOby, not inferior in size to any rivers in Asia, carryoff the waters that come from the Altai chain, andfrom the mountains and terraces on the northerndeclivity of the central table-land. Two of these, theAmur and Lena, rise in the Baikalian mountains,the source of more great rivers than any group of itssize. The Amur, the sources of which are partly inthe Russian dominions, though its course is chieflyin China, is 2000 miles long, including its windings,and has a basin of 853,000 square miles. Almostall its. accessories come from that part of the Baik-alian group called the Yablonnoi Khrebit by the


Russians, and Khing-Khan-Oola by the Chinese.The river Onon, which is the parent stream, has itsorigin in the Khentai Khan, a branch of the latter;and though its course is through an uninhabitedcountry, it is celebrated as being the birthplace andthe scene of the exploits of Tshingis Khan. Afterpassing through the lake of Dalai-nor, which is 210miles in circumference, it takes the name of Argun,and forms the boundary between the Chinese andRussians for 400 miles : it is then joined by the Silka,where it assumes the Tunguse name of the Amur,or Great River ; the Mandchoos call it the Sagha-lia, or Black Water. It receives most of the un-known rivers that come from the mountain-slopes ofthe Great Gobi, and falls into the Pacific oppositeto the island of Tarakai", after having traversedthree degrees of latitude and thirty-three of longitude.

The Lena, whose basin occupies 800,000 squaremiles, springs from mountains 20 miles west fromthe Lake of Baikal, and runs north-east throughmore than half its course to the Siberian town ofYakutzk, the coldest town on the face of the earth,receiving in its course the Witim and the Alekma,its two principal affluents; the former from theBaikal Mountains, the latter from Stannovoi Khrebit,the most southerly part of the Aldan range. Northof Yakutzk, about the 63rd parallel of latitude, theLena receives the Aldan, its greatest tributary,which also comes from the Stannovoi Khrebit: itthen goes to the Arctic Ocean, between banks offrozen mud, prodigious masses of which are hurled

SIBERIAN RIVERS. 301

down by the summer floods, and bring to view thebones of those huge animals of extinct species whichat some remote period had found their nourishmentin these desert plains. The length of the Lena in-cluding its windings is 1900 miles.

A difference in the pressure of the air has beenobserved on the banks of this river, on the shores ofthe sea of Okhotsk, and at Kamtschatka, which showsthat in the distance of five degrees of latitude thereis an apparent difference in the level of the seaamounting to 159 feet.* A similar phenomenonwas observed by Captain Foster near Cape Horn,and by Sir James Ross throughout the South PolarOcean.

The Yenessei, a much larger river than the Lena,drains about 1,000,000 square miles, and is formedby the union of the Great and Little Kem. Theformer rises at the junction of the Sayansk rangewith the Baikalian mountains to the north-west ofLake Kassagol ; the latter comes from the Egtag orLittle Altai', in quite an opposite direction ; so thatthese two meet nearly at right angles, and takethe name of Yenessei: it then crosses the Seyanskrange in cataracts and rapids, entering the plains ofSiberia below the town of Krasnagarsk. Manyrivers join it in this part of its course, chiefly theAngora from the Lake Baikal; but its greatest tri-butaries, the Upper and Lower Tungurka, bothlarge rivers from the Baikalian mountains, join itlower down, the first to the south, the latter to the

* M. Erman.


north of the town of Yeniseisk, whence it runs northto the Icy Ocean, there forming a large gulf, itslength measured along its bed being 2500 miles.

The Oby rises in the Lake of Toleskoi, " TheLake of Gold," in Great Tartary ; all the streamsof the Lesser Altai unite to swell it and its great tri-butary the Irtish. The rivers which come from thenorthern declivity of the mountains go to the Oby,those from the western sides to the Irtish, whichsprings from numerous streams on the south-westerndeclivity of the Little Altai, and runs westward intoLake Zainzan, 200 miles in circumference. Issuingfrom thence it takes a westerly course to the plainon the north of Semissalatinsk. In the plain it isjoined by the Tobol, which crosses the steppe of theKirghiz Cossacks from the Ural Mountains, andsoon unites with the Oby : the joint stream then pro-ceeds to the Arctic Ocean in 67° N. lat. The Obyis 2000 miles long, and the basin of these two riversoccupies a third part of Siberia.

Before the Oby leaves the mountains, at a distanceof 1200 miles from the Arctic Ocean, its surfacehas an absolute elevation of not more than 400 feet,and the Irtish, at the same distance, is only 72 feethigher ; both are consequently sluggish. When thesnow melts they cover the country like seas; and asthe inclination of the plains, in the middle and lowerparts of their course, is not sufficient to carry off thewater, those immense lakes and marshes are formedwhich characterise this portion of Siberia.

The bed of the Oby is very deep; and there are

SIBERIAN RIVERS. 303

no soundings at its mouth: hence the largest vesselsmight ascend at least to its junction with the Irtish.Its many affluents also might admit ships, did notthe climate oppose an insurmountable obstacle thegreater part of the year. Indeed, all Siberian riversare frozen annually for many months, and even theocean along the Arctic coasts is rarely disencumberedfrom ice; consequently these vast rivers never canbe important as navigable streams; but towards themountains they afford water communication fromthe steppe of Issim to the Pacific. They abound infish and waterfowl, for which the Siberian bravesthe extremest severity of the climate.

Local circumstances have nowhere produced agreater difference in the human race than in thebasins of the great rivers north and south of thetable-land of eastern Asia. The Indian, favouredby the finest climate, and a soil which produces theluxuries of life, intersected with rivers navigable atall seasons, and affording easy communication withthe surrounding nations, attained early a high degreeof civilization; while the Siberian and Samoide,doomed to contend with the rigours of the polarblasts in order to maintain mere existence, havenever risen beyond the lowest grade of humanity :but custom softens even the rigour of this stern life,so that here also a share of happiness is enjoyed.

END OF VOL. I.

Documents

Physical Geography, Volume 1