Distinct from all the rest of the southern highlands of Europe stands the huge mass of the Caucasus, the natural frontier of Europe on the southeast, rising like a wall from the flat isthmus between the Black Sea and the Caspian. Its close parallel chains are united by high plateaus cut into by deep narrow transverse gorges of extreme depth. Though attaining far greater heights than the Alps and reaching several thousand feet above the limit of perennial snows, the glaciers and snow-fields of the Caucasus are small and insignificant in comparison with those of the Alps. This is owing to the dryness of the region in which they stand, and the small snowfall over them.
SCANDINAVIAN MOUNTAIN
GROUPS
In the north European mountain region the mass of heights which form the Scandinavian peninsula are by far the most important. These present no definite range, but are rather a collection of broad plateaus topped with moor or snow-field, cut into by long steep-walled “fiords” on the Atlantic side, and resembling the Alps in the pine woods of their slopes, in their lakes and extensive glaciers, though they are nowhere of very great altitude.
The main field, which is applied to most of the Scandinavian mountain groups, suggests their plateau form; the Hardanger Field, Ymes Field, and Dovre Field, with the Jostedals Brae (or ice-brae—glacier), are the most prominent of the southern heights of Norway; in the north the broken heights which run along the Atlantic and Arctic borders of the peninsula have the general name of the Kiölen. The heather-covered hills of Scotland—the Grampians and west coast mountains—as well as those of Cumberland and Wales farther south in Great Britain, belong to the same system as that of the Scandinavian heights.
SURFACE OF EUROPEAN
ISLANDS
We have formerly noticed that almost all the European islands are high. In the Mediterranean we find the island of Crete reaching to upwards of eight thousand feet in Mount Ida; Sicily, with its volcano of Etna nine thousand six hundred and fifty-two feet; Sardinia with Mount Gennargentu (six thousand two hundred and ninety feet); Corsica, with Monte Rotondo (nine thousand and sixty-five feet); Iceland, on the border of the Arctic seas, recalling Norway in its grand fiords, rises high in its mass of volcanic jökulls (Oræfa, six thousand four hundred and eight feet; Hecla, five thousand one hundred and ten feet), covered in between with accumulated snows and glaciers; Spitzbergen’s black peaks, which give its name, also rise high from its white glacier fields.
CHAIN OF THE
URAL
Separate and distinct in character and direction from the mountains of the rest of Europe, is the long chain of the Ural, rich in gold, platinum, iron, and copper. It takes its name probably from the Tartar word meaning “belt,” which well expresses the length and continuity of this remarkable line of heights, stretching along the eastern border of the great European plain for more than twelve hundred miles. In height, however, the Ural is insignificant. Another separated height, that of the forest-covered Valdai hills in Western Russia, would scarcely be worthy of mention among the European highlands if it did not form the water-parting of the greatest of European rivers, the Volga.
For the height of the chief mountain peaks and ranges, consult the tables on [page 74] and following.