Detached masses and mountain-groups spread along the western coast, between the 12th and 18th parallels of north and south latitude respectively. To the north of the Equator lie the Kong Mountains; and near the coast of the Bight of Biafra rises the semi-extinct volcano of the Camaroons, 13,129 feet high. This elevation is far exceeded by that of the colossal summits, which on the eastern coast are situated within a few degrees of the equinoctial line, and wear a crown of snow which is indissoluble. One of these, Kilimandjaro, has an altitude of 22,814 feet, while Kenia cannot be less than 20,000 feet. Others are probably equal, or little inferior, to these in height.
In South Africa are three ranges of mountains, or rather terraces, the northernmost of which is called the Nieuweld, and runs in a general course of east and west. Towards its eastern extremity it bears the name of the Sneeaberg, or Snowy Mountain, and its summits are frequently 1000 feet high. The Compassberg group is 7000 feet in elevation. Immediately to the south of Cape Town rises the curious flat-topped Table Mountain, 3582 feet in height. The Peak of Teneriffe, in the Canary Isles, off the north-west coast, is volcanic; it rises 12,236 feet above the sea.
Asia possesses, as we have seen, the loftiest mountain-peaks, but it is on the American continent we meet with the grandest mountain-systems. We remark, in the first place, that they are all directed from north to south; in the second, that they are grouped along the western and eastern coasts in two unequal systems, converging towards each other as they run southward. In North America these two systems are the Rocky Mountains on the west; and the Apalachian, or Alleghany, on the east. The former consists of a mountain-region, diversified with valleys, terraces, and plateaus, varying in breadth from 40 to 100 miles, and raising several summits to a very conspicuous elevation, as in Mount Brown, 15,900 feet, and the volcanic peak of Mount Elias, in California, 17,500 feet.
The Apalachian range extends from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the parallel of 34°, a course of 1500 miles. It is intersected by Lake Champlain and the valley of the Hudson. Its average height does not exceed 3000 feet; but it culminates in Mount Washington to an altitude of 6234 feet.
In South America the chain of the Rocky Mountains is prolonged in the magnificent system of the Cordilleras de los Andes, or the Andes, which commences immediately to the southward of the Isthmus of Panama, extends along the whole stretch of the western coast, and finally terminates in the rocky archipelago of Tierra del Fuego. This chain is locally distinguished into the Columbian, Peruvian, Bolivian, Chilian, and Patagonian Andes. Its widest extension occurs between the 20th and 25th parallels, where it measures upwards of 400 miles across. Throughout its entire course it attains a very considerable elevation. Its volcanic character is very marked. Thus, in the Columbian Andes, Antisana and Cotopaxi are still active; in the Chilian, Aconcagua is the loftiest volcano on the globe; in the Patagonian, four active volcanoes occur. The region at the base of the Chilian Andes suffers more from volcanic convulsion than any other part of the world, and its towns are repeatedly destroyed by earthquakes.
The principal summits are:—Aconcagua, 23,944 feet; Chimborazo, 21,415 feet; Sahama, 22,350 feet; Cotopaxi, 18,867; Antisana, 19,136 feet; Sorata, 21,286 feet; and Illimanni, 21,149 feet.
On the eastern coast we meet with the Mountains of Guiana and the Mountains of Brazil, never reaching a higher level than 5000 feet. Mount Sarmiento, in Tierra del Fuego, is 6900 feet above the sea. In the West Indies the loftiest point is found in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica, 7278 feet.
CHAPTER V.
VEGETABLE LIFE AND ANIMAL LIFE IN THE MOUNTAINS.
THE same changes that we observe in the characters of vegetable life as we advance towards the Pole reproduce themselves, the reader will easily understand, as we ascend the mountain-sides. Only, in the former case the gradation is slow and scarcely perceptible; in the latter, it displays itself rapidly; in such wise that a distance of a few hundred yards in height is equivalent to a journey of several degrees in latitude. It is scarcely necessary to add that the warmer the climate, the higher we must rise to reach the belt or zone where flourish the species peculiar to Arctic countries.