Glaciers abound in the loftier Himalayas. The lowest elevation to which they descend is about 11,500 feet above the level of the sea.
The Altai Mountains lie north of Mongolia, with an average elevation of from 5000 to 7000 feet. Eternal snow crowns their loftiest summit, Mount Bielukha, 11,063 feet. In Central Asia we find the chains of the Thian-shan, partly volcanic, and the Kuen-lun, which are little known, but probably lift their towering heads to an altitude of fully 20,000 feet. China is traversed from west to east by two mountain-ranges, the Pe-ling and Nan-ling, or “Northern” and “Southern,” which prolong their rocky heights to the very shores of the Pacific. West of the table-land of Pamer the eye rests upon the formidable chain of the Beloor-tagh, from 18,000 to 20,000 feet in elevation; and on the borders of Central Asia the Himalaya, the Beloor-tagh and other chains unite in the colossal knot or group of the Hindoo-Koosh. Thence, with a westerly course, extend the Paropamisan and Caspian Mountains, the latter culminating in Mount Demavend, 14,300 feet, near the Caspian Sea. The Soleiman Mountains border on the rugged plateau of Afghanistan; in Armenia rises the fable-haunted crest of Agri-dagh, or Mount Ararat, 17,260 feet; while, in Asia Minor, the Taurus chain, which so often beheld the banners and glancing spears of the Romans, attains its loftiest in Mount Argæus, or Arjish-dagh, 13,100 feet; and along the coast of Syria rolls the undulating range of Lebanon, with Mount Hermon soaring to 9600 feet. Arabia is occupied by a branch of the Lebanon, which runs southward into the Sinaitic peninsula. The highest of the Sinai Mountains is 9300 feet above the sea.
The average altitude of the Ghauts, which line the east and west coasts of Hindostan, is 3000 feet; but some of their summits aspire to 8000 feet.
A range of high mountains traverses the dreary peninsula of Kamtschatka, and appears to be a continuation of the volcanic chain which forms the Kurile Islands, and extends even to Japan and the great islands of the Eastern Archipelago. Many of the Kamtschatkan volcanoes are still active, such as Avatsha, Kluchevsky, and Assachnish, and though shrouded in snow and ice project from their seething caldrons vast showers of ashes, stones, boiling water, and lava. Avatsha is 9600 feet high.
The Indian islands contain many colossal mountains, mostly, if not all, of a volcanic character, and the same generalization is true of the beautiful Polynesian archipelagos:—
“Summer-isles of Eden lying in dark purple spheres of sea.”
Mount Ophir, in Sumatra, is 13,840 feet high; Stamat, in Java, 12,300 feet; Indiapura, in Sumatra, 12,140 feet; Tomboro, in the island of Sumbawa, 7600 feet; and Kilauea, in the Sandwich Islands, 3970 feet. Kina-balu, in Borneo, is a magnificent mass, 13,968 feet in height. “Its grand precipices,” says a traveller,[202] “its polished granite surfaces glittering under the bright tropical rays, the dashing cascades, which fall from so great a height as to dissolve in spray before being lost in the dark valleys below, have a magical effect upon the imagination.”
My rapid survey of the mountain-systems of the globe now brings both writer and reader to the African Continent, which contains, however, an unusually large proportion of plain and low level. The northern mountain-ranges, which extend from east to west parallel to the Mediterranean, are known to geographers under the general appellation of Mount Atlas, whose culminating point occurs in the peak of Miltoin, 11,400 feet, to the south-east of the city of Morocco.
In the north-eastern part of the continent lie the Mountains of Abyssinia, the highest pinnacle being that of Geesh, which towers at an elevation of 15,000 feet above the sea. Many other summits are also crowned with “snows eternal,” feeding a succession of streams which pour their waters into the White Nile.