passage for itself through the main range of Taurus, and | formed a double cataract 15 m. above Samisat. From the latter point the river pursues a nearly S. course to Rajik, about 50 m. E. from Aleppo, its course being thence almost uniformly S.E. At its source the Frat, or N. arm of the Euphrates, is only 90 m. from the Black Sea, but a very mountainous country intervenes between them. During its S. course, the Euphrates approaches within 122 m. of the Mediterranean, and as the interjacent country is for the most part level or undulating, it would, perhaps, present no very serious obstacles to the formation of canals or carriage roads. From Hillah (Babylon) to its mouth it flows through a perfectly level country, which was anciently intersected by numerous canals. At Bir, 107 m. N.E. Antioch, the Euphrates is 628 ft. above the level of the Mediterranean (Ainsworth, p. 109.), the rate of inclination from which being estimated to average only about 6 inches a mile. The total length of the river, measured from the sources of the Morad, is estimated at about 1,800 m. (Geogr. Journal, iii. 243.); its breadth at Malatia is 100 yds., and at Bir 130 yds. At Ul Der (an. Thapsacus) (Kinneir's Memoir on the Persian Empire, p. 9.) the Euphrates is 800 yds. wide; at Hillah its bed is contracted to about 200 yds.; but below the latter it frequently spreads out to a considerable breadth, and the Shat-ul-Arab ranks amongst the noblest rivers of the Asiatic continent. The Euphrates is navigable to the cataract above Samisat; at Hillah it has seldom less than 18 ft. water, even in the lowest season, and a vessel drawing 15 ft. water may ascend to Korna, where it is joined by the Tigris. The principal tributary of the Euphrates is the Tigris, which, indeed, is but little inferior to itself; its next greatest tributaries are the Kara-su, Khabúr (an. Chaboras), and Kerah, which joins the Shat-ul-Arab. The banks of the Euphrates were in antiquity the seat of many noble cities. The small mean town of Hillah occupies a minute portion of the site of the once mighty Babylon, "the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldee's excellency;" Hit (an. Is or Acopolis), Anna (an. Anetho), Kerkisiya (Cercusium), and Bir, are amongst the other towns on its banks; but Bussorah or Basra, on the Shat-ul Arab, is at present the only large city on the Euphrates. The Tigris is throughout its whole course comprised within the Turkish dom. It rises in the pachalic of Diarbekr, from numerous sources on the S. side of the Taurus chain, by which it is separated from the Morad, in about lat. 38° 40′ N., and at an elevation of about 5,050 ft. above the level of the sea. (Ainsworth, p. 110) Its course, to its junction with the Euphrates, is, with very little deviation, S.E. It runs at first through a mountainous country, with great rapidity; at Mosul it is no more than 353 ft. above the level of the Persian Gulph; from Bagdad it flows, with a moderate current, through a nearly level plain. Its distance from the Euphrates varies from 18 to 95 m.; the two rivers enclose the province in antiquity called, from that circumstance, Mesopotamia. The entire length of the Tigris is estimated at 1,146 m. At Mosul it is 100 yds. wide; between Bagdad and Korna its average breadth is 200 yards. It brings down great quantities of mud, which it deposits in shoals and islands in the lower part of its course; and between Mosul and Bagdad it passes over several ledges of rock, which form rapids of more or less difficulty. It is neither so deep nor so suitable for navigation as the Euphrates. It is, however, navigable for vessels drawing 4 ft. water as far as the ruins of Opis near the mouth of the Adhaym (Lynch, in Geogr. Journ.); and in Dec., 1836, it was ascended considerably above Bagdad by Col. Chesney's steamer "Euphrates." Its principal affluents are the Kaboor, the Great and Little Zab (an. Zabatus and Zabus Minor), the Adhaym (an. Physcus ?), the Diala (an. Delos or Arba). In antiquity its banks were studded with cities of the first rank, as Nineveh, Seleucia, Ctesiphon, Opis, &c. Bagdad may be considered as the modern representative of Seleucia and Ctesiphon, as Mosul is that of Nineveh, opposite the site of which it is placed. Diarbekr is the only other important town on its banks. The Tigris derives its name from the rapidity of its course, the term Tigris signifying "an arrow" in the language of the Medes and Armenians. So late as the age of Alexander the Great, the Tigris did not unite with the Euphrates, and each river preserved a separate course to the sea. But they not long after became united; and have since found their way to the sea in a collective stream. The ground in the lower part of their course being soft and alluvial, and their waters being also diverted into new channels by means of canals, the courses of both rivers must necessarily have differed materially at different periods. (Rennell's Geog. of Herodotus, i. 265.) The Euphrates and Tigris run through chalky formations of a very friable nature, easily disintegrated by the action of the elements. Both rivers have their regular inundations, rising twice a year-first, in Dec., in con sequence of the autumnal rains; and next, from Märch till June, owing to the melting of the mountain snows. (Rich, p. 54.) They bring down immense quantities of alluvium; and the extent of land covered by their deposits is supposed to exceed 32,000 sq. m.! The ancient writers have not failed to notice this resemblance between the Euphrates and the Nile. Cicero says,Mesopotamiam fertilem efficit Euphrates, in quam quotannis quasi noros agros invehit, (De Nat. Deorum, lib. ii.) And Lucan ---Sparsus in agros Fertilis Euphrates, Pharia vice fungitur unda. Lib. ili. v. 259. Mr. Ainsworth found the maximum of sediment mechanically suspended in the waters of the Euphrates, in Dec. and Jan. 1836 (in which months most mud is brought down), to be equal to 1-80th part of the bulk of the fluid. A good deal of this mud is deposited in the marshes of Lemlúm (an. Paludes Babylonia), a swampy tract, about 40 m. long by as many broad, commencing 50 m. S. W. of Babylon, and which has existed from the remotest period to the present day. The quantity of mud brought down by the Tigris was found, in Jan. 1837, to be equivalent to 1-100th part of the suspending fluid; but as it is not dispersed in marshes, more is carried down by this than by the Euphrates to the mouth of the Shat-ul-Arab. The rapidity of the Upper Tigris frequently causes it to break down its banks; Mr. Rich says, that when at its height it has a current of near seven knots an hour. In the alluvial plain, however, it averages only 14 m. an hour throughout, and in many places it is less than 1 m. The Euphrates above Samisat is, perhaps, as rapid as the Tigris; and at Hillah, where its bed is narrowed, its rate is from 3 to 4 m. an hour; but in the low plain this rate is diminished to about 1 or 1 m. Lower Mesopotamia, or Babylonia, was, as already stated, anciently intersected by canals in every direction, for the purposes both of navigation and irrigation. Many connected the Tigris with the Euphrates; those which still exist are especially numerous near Bagdad, where the rivers approach within 25 m. of each other; and some, as the Nahr Malcha, might be easily repaired. (Rich's Babylon, &c. p. 57.) In fact, the Euphrates steamer passed from the Euphrates to the Tigris by the Isa canal, which leaves the former a few miles above Feluga, and enters the latter a short way below Bagdad. The Shat el-Hie, which connects the two rivers, is also navigable in spring by large boats. The most celebrated of the ancient canals, that of Pallacopas, cut by the earliest Assyrian monarchs, partly through solid rock, extended for a very considerable distance parallel to the Euphrates on its S.W. side. Niebuhr supposed it had commenced at Hit. It may still be traced, almost continuously, from a little below Babylon to its probable mouth in the Persian Gulph (Khore Abdallah). Remains of aqueducts and towns, and various other ruins, abound in this region; and the ancient Median wall which ran from Macepracta on the Euphrates, to near the site of Opis on the Tigris, is still clearly traceable. (See Messrs. Ross and Lynch, in Geog. Journ, vol. ix.) able importance; and Colonel Chesney has proved that The steam navigation of the Euphrates is of considerit may be navigated, as high as Bir, by steamers drawing 4 ft. water. Certainly however, we have no idea that it ever can be made available as an ordinary channel of com. munication between Europe and India; and are, indeed, surprised that any such notion should ever have been entertained: but its navigation would confer the greatest advantages on the vast and fertile countries through which it flows, should they be ever emancipated from the barbarism under which they have so long groaned. EURE, a dép. of France, in the N. part of the kingd., being one of the five comprised in the ancient prov. of Normandy; between lat. 45° 39′ and 49° 29′ N., and long. 0° 15′ and 1° 45′ E.; having N. the æstuary of the Seine and the dep. Seine Inférieure, E. the deps. Oise and Seine-et-Oise, S. and S. W. Eure-et-Loir and Orne, and W. Calvados. Length E. to W. 65 m., breadth varying from 26 to 52 m. Area 582,127 hectares. Pop. (1836) 424,762. Surface nearly flat. There are a few ranges of low hills, principally in the N., none of them reaching an elevation of more than 330 ft. These ranges divide the dep. into several distinct plateaux, presenting a great variety of aspect. It is well watered; the Sine flows through its E. portion, and along its N.E. border. The Eure, whence it derives its name, rises in Orne, and after running at first E. and then N. falls into the Seine 6 m. N. Louviers. The Iton, Rille, and Charentonne are the other principal streams. Climate mild, but damp and variable: W. winds are the most prevalent. Soil chiefly calcareous or marly; but on the banks of the Seine it is sandy, and rather sterile. Iron ore is abundant, and there are numerous mines. According to the official tables, the arable lands comprised, in 1834, 358,863 hectares; pastures, 23,310 h.; orchards, 34,732 h.; and forests, 111,045 h. Property is less sub size, Europe is immeasurably superior to the other continents in the enterprise, intelligence, and civilisation of her inhabitants, and perhaps also in her physical advantages. Altrice victoris omnium gentium populi, longeque terrarum pulcherrima. (Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. iii. §1.) Europe is mostly situated within the temperate zone,and no part of her surface approaches within many degrees of the intertropical regions. The climate is, therefore, rather inclined to cold; but it is comparatively temperate, and is neither so cold in winter nor so hot in summer as the countries in the corresponding latitudes of Asia and America; so that while comfortable lodging and warm clothing are indispensable, the exertions of the inhabitants are not impeded by the too great intensity of cold on the one hand, or of heat on the other. The surface, too, of the country is infinitely varied and picturesque; and it has the advantage of being more intersected than any other continent by great arms of the sea, supplying facilities to internal and foreign commerce, that are all but wholly denied to Asia, Africa, and Australia, and not enjoyed in an equal degree even by America. The soil of Europe seems also to be of the quality best suited to stimulate and reward the efforts of the husbandman; for though it be nowhere so fertile as to produce crops without laborious diligence, and, consequently, does not foster indolence or a want of attention, it never fails liberally to reward the efforts of the industrious and skilful cultivator. Hence it is that this continent has every thing that seems best fitted to call forth and develope human genius and resources. But the advanced civilisation and su divided in this than in most other deps.; still, however, of 181,517 properties, subject to the contribution foncière, in 1835, no fewer than 89,449 were assessed at less than 5 fr., and 33.524 at between 5 and 10 fr.; but at the same time, 1,232 properties were assessed at from 300 to 500 fr., 828 at from 500 to 1,000, and 502 at 1,000 fr. and upwards, being very much above the average proportion of large estates in the kingdom. Previously to the Revolution the estates were much larger, but most of them have since been repeatedly subdivided by the operation of the law of equal succession. (See FRANCE.) Farms vary in size from 20 to 150 hectares. Agriculture, though more improved than in many other parts of France, is still very backward. The farm-buildings and cottages of the peasantry are in many instances of the very worst description, being frequently ill situated, built of wood, thatched with stubble, and surrounded by dunghills and filth. The fences are not well kept: but, notwithstanding these drawbacks, the country has, on the whole, a considerable resemblance to England. Wheat, oats, maslin, and rye are the principal kinds of grain cultivated. The total produce of corn in 1835 was estimated at 3,526,112 hectolitres. In some parts flax is grown; in others, hemp, pulse, woad, &c. Little wine is made, but apples and pears are very plentiful, and cider and perry are the ordinary drink of the pop. The stock of sheep is estimated at about 435,000 head, producing annually about 420,000 kilogs. of wool. The mining and manufacturing establishments of this dep. rank amongst the most extensive and important in France. The various works for smelting and working iron, copper, and other metals, employed in 1834 about 30,000 hands: the copper and zinc works at Romilly are very extensive. The cotton and woollen manufactures are also important. The broad cloths of Louviers are justly celebrated in foreign countries as well as in France, and in addition to them, cottons, flannels, druggets, baize, velvets, glass, paper, and leather are largely manufactured. This is one of the very few deps. of which the pop. has been latterly decreasing. It is divided into five arronds., and sends 7 mems, to the ch. of dep. No. of electors (1838-9), 3,621. Chief towns, Evreux the cap., Louviers, and Bernay. Total public revenue (1831), 13,830,221 fr. The women of this dep., as in other parts of Normandy, are good-looking and tidy; they wear dresses of remarkably bright colours, and lofty pyra-perior influence of Europe in the affairs of the midal caps, called bonnets cauchoises, ornamented with a great quantity of lace. Eure contains some Celtic, and many Roman antiquities; but those of the middle ages were mostly destroyed during the Revolution. (Hugo, art. Eure; Encycl. des Gens du Monde, &c.) EURE-ET-LOIR, a dép. of France, in the N. part of the kingdom, between lat. 47° 57′ and 48° 57′ N. and long. 0° 44′ and 1° 59′ E., having N. the dep. Eure, E. those of Seine-et-Oise and Loiret, S. the last named and Loir-et-Cher, and W. Sarthe and Orne. Length N. to S. 60 m., greatest breadth about 55 m.; area 548,304 hectares. Pop. (1836) 285,058. There are only a few scattered heights in this dep., nearly the whole of which consists of an undulating plain. Principal rivers, the Eure towards the N., and the Loir in the S. Small lakes are numerous. Climate temperate and healthy. As much as 310,000 hectares of the surface consists of rich alluvial soil, and this dep. contains a greater extent of cultivable and less waste land than any other in the kingdom. In 1835, of 140,901 properties subject to the contribution foncière, 46,025 were assessed at less than 5 fr., and 37,597 at from 5 to 10 fr.; the number of considerable estates is, however, above the average of the deps. This is especially a corn-growing dep., and in 1835 produced altogether 4,531,910 hectol. of grain, principally wheat and oats. Good flax and hemp, pulse, turnips, onions, melons, woad, &c. are grown, but few potatoes. In some cantous the vine is cultivated, and in ordinary years about 200,000 hectolitres of inferior wine are made, as well as about the same quantity of cider. In 1830, 48,245 hectares of the surface consisted of pasture land, and the dep. contained 86,000 oxen and 700,000 sheep; the latter furnishing about 1,000,000 kilog. a year of wool. There are some iron mines, but they are little wrought. Manufactures of no great importance; the chief are those of ironware, earthenware, paper, cotton and woollen fabrics, beet-root sugar, and leather. This dep. is divided into 4 arrond., and sends 4 mems. to the ch. of dep. No. of electors (1838-9) 2,410. Chief towns, Chartres the cap., Chateaudun, Dreux, and Nogent-le-Rotreau. Total public rev. (1831) 9,363,627 fr. (Encyc. des Gens du Monde; French Official Tables.) EUROPE. This, with the exception of Australia, is the least of all the great divisions of the globe, being only about a fifth part of the size of Asia or America, and a third part of that of Africa. But, though thus inferior in point of *For a concise account of the various derivations of the word Europe, see Facciolati Lexicon, voce Europa. world seems, after all, to be owing in no small degree to the superior capacity of her inhabitants, as evinced in their superior enterprise, invention, perseverance, and power of combination. In all these respects they seem to be decidedly in advance of the most improved Asiatic nations; while the difference between them and the most improved native nations of Africa, America, and Australia, appears almost as great as the difference between man and the least advanced of the lower animals. Europe is the only part of the world in which civilisation and the arts have, generally speaking, been uniformly progressive. Important discoveries have been made, at remote periods, in China, India, and other Asiatic countries, but these would seem to have been the result of accident only, and, at all events, have had comparatively little influence: it is here only that they have been appreciated, improved, and perfected, and made instrumental in the production of further discoveries. It is characteristic of the European that he is never satisfied with what he has achieved; he is always pressing forward with unabated ardour in the career of industry and invention; and is as anxious to advance himself at this moment as his semi-barbarous ancestors 3,000 or 4,000 years ago. How much of this distinctive character and superiority of the European is to be ascribed to different and favourable circumstances, and how much to difference of race, is an inquiry foreign to our subject and incompatible with our limits. Most probably a good deal is ascribable to both causes; but, at all events, his superiority is alike great and obvious. It would seem, too, that he is des tined to extend his dominion over every other part of the world, with the exception, perhaps, of the bulk of the African continent. The Eu ropean is already master of by far the largest portion of America; he has also laid the found- | all difficulties as to their boundaries vanish. The S.E. and ations of settlements in Australia that will, no E. frontiers of Europe are then marked by the shores of the Egean Sea, the Hellespont, the Propontis, or Sea of doubt, at no very distant period, spread over Marmara, the Bosphorus of Thrace, the Euxine, round to every part of that remote and barbarous conti- the Caucasus, and the ridge of that mountain system to nent; and some of the oldest, most extensive, the Caspian, thence along the shore of that sea to the and richest countries of Asia are already in his Oural (from its mouth to its source) and the Oural Mounpower; and the fair presumption seems to be tains, which, being continued to the Frozen Ocean and even further, in the high lands of Nova Zembla, comthat he will in the end extend his conquests over plete the outline in this direction. Still it is evident that every part of that great continent! Hence the Europe is so connected with Asia, being in fact nothing prodigious preponderance of Europe in a moral but a peninsular prolongation of the larger mass of land, that no division can be quite satisfactory on physical and political point of view! It is to the world principles; and, were it not for the vast difference in the at large what Rome was to Italy, or Athens to races by which they are inhabited, we might perhaps be Greece - the favoured land unde humanitas, doc-disposed to agree with Herodotus, who objects to giving trina, religio, fruges, jura, leges ortæ atque in different names to what is substantially one and the same continent. (Melpom. p. 45.) omnes terras distribute putantur. Situation and Limits of Europe. - Europe forms the N. W. portion of the old or E. continent, having Asia on its E. and partly on its S. border; Africa, parted from it by the Mediterranean Sea, on the S.; the Atlantic Ocean, separating it from America, on the W.; and the Arctic Ocean on the N. Its limits are extremely well defined upon the S. and W., but in other directions doubts exist as to what is or is not Europe. Had the early Greek geographers, indeed, been aware that for more than 1,500 m. it was joined to Asia, the probability is that no name would have been imposed to distinguish it from that division of the world; but the first observers on the shores of Greece and Asia Minor, having adopted terms to designate the countries N. and S. of the narrow seas in that quarter, the subsequent discoverers applied the same as generic appellations to all the lands which gradually became known to them. Believing themselves to be permanently separated by the sea, the European naturally included in his Europe, and the Asiatic in his Asia, the discoveries made by each along the N. and S. shores of the Euxine; till, in their progress, they met on the banks of the Phasis, which thence became the first arbitrarily assumed line of demarcation. (Herodotus Mel. 37, 38.) Even in the time of Herodotus, however, this division was growing uncertain (Mel. 45.), and a line, formed by the Cimmerian Bosphorus, the Palus Mootis, and the Tanais (Strait of Yenikalé, Sea of Azoph, and Don) was superseding it. This line was subsequently adopted universally as the E. limit of Europe. (Strabo, ii. 127.; Pliny, iii. 1.; Ptolemy, iii. 5, 6. v. 9.; Pomponius Mela, i. 2.) Little or nothing was known of this region during the middle ages; and when the arms of Russia laid it open to observation, the winding course of the Don, with which the ancients were but very vaguely acquainted, betrayed the geographers of the last century in their anxiety to accommodate their systems with those of the Greeks, into an inextricable labyrinth of contra dictions and absurdities. At length the academy of St. Petersburgh having, with great judgment, fixed the Oural Mountains as the N.E. limit of Europe, proposed to con tinue the line of demarcation, upon their meridian, by the river Jaik or Oural, as far S. as the commencement of the great salt plains N. of the Caspian: thence the boundary was an imaginary line running S. W. to Zarcsin, where the Wolga approaches nearest to the Don; crossing the former river at that point, and then following the old limit, along the bank of the Catta, to the Sea of Azoph. (Acta Acad. Pet. 1778, p. 6.; Pallas' Observations on Mountains, p. 28.) But the latter part of this boundary has two obvious defects: it is not sufficiently marked by natural features, and it divides the sources of three great rivers, the Oural, Wolga, and Don, leaving a part of each in Europe and a part in Asia. Malte-Brun (Abrégé de Géographie, p. 174.) proposes to follow the Oural to its mouth, and then to take the Caspian for his E. border, as far as the outlet of the Kuma; thence, to follow that river and the Manytch across the Caucasian plain to the junction of the latter with the Don, the lower course of which he also leaves in possession of its old destination. He considers this line as preferable to that which would follow the Terek and Kuban, because its depression is somewhat greater; but this line is hardly less arbitrary than that of the Russian academicians, and, like theirs, it is not marked by any grand natural feature. It is, indeed, not a little extraordinary, that neither looked to the gigantic chain of the Caucasus for a boundary: but it is evident that it forms one that is in all respects unexceptionable. It divides, as if by a wall (Strabo, lib. xi. p. 342.), the isthmus between the Euxine and Caspian seas, stretching between Anapé on the former and Cape Abscharon on the latter, forming a well-defined and indestructible barrier between Europe and Asia. It would not, in fact, be more absurd to extend the boundaries of France to the Ebro, or of Spain to the Garonne, losing sight of the Pyrenees, than it is to fix the limits of Asia and Europe either to the S or N. of Caucasus. Nature has obviously intended that that great chain should be the limit between the two continents, and by adopting it It might appear that Nature had marked the limits of Europe too strongly towards the N. to admit of any doubt regarding them; but Iceland having been discovered and colonised long before the voyage of Columbus, was considered as belonging to Europe; though, as it lies much nearer to the American coast, or rather to that mass of land beginning with Greenland, which appears to be divided from the American main by Baffin's Bay and Barrow's Strait, it is properly an American island. On the other hand, Spitzbergen has been sometimes considered as belonging to America, though lying on the meridian (the 20th), which passes through the very heart of Europe; and Nova Zembla has been, in like manner, included in Asia, notwithstanding the comparatively wide sea of Kara flows between it and that continent, while it is parted from Europe merely by a strait, which is moreover broken by an island (Vaigatz) of some size. According to the principle, then, which considers as belonging to a continent those islands which lie nearest to it, Nova Zembla and Spitzbergen should be included in Europe, and Iceland in America; and the same arrangement, perhaps, requires that the Azores, though very distant, should also be included in Europe. According to this distribution, Europe and its islands extend from the rock of Cufonisa, S. of Crete, in lat. 34° 49 N., to Little Table Island, the most N. of the Spitzbergen group, in 80° 48′ 21′′ N.; and from Flores, the most W. of the Azores, in long. 31° W., to Jelania Noss or Cape Desire, the most E. point of Nova Zembla, in 77° E. The continental portion lies in much narrower limits, its extremes in lat. being the Tarifa Rock, W. of Gibraltar, in 36° N., and Nordkun in Finmark, 71o N. In long. the European continent extends from Cape Da Rocca, near Lisbon, 9° 30′ W., to the mouth of the Kara River, 66° E. (Admiralty Charts; Great Russian Map, 1800; Parry's Fourth Voyage, p. 42.; Arrowsmith's Atlas, pl.3., &c.) Its extreme length, É.N.E. to W.S.W., from the Ouralian Mountains near Orsk in Russia to Cape St. Vincent in Portugal, is nearly 3,400 m.; its greatest breadth, N. to S., from the North Cape to Cape Matapan in Greece, 2,450 m. Its area, pop., subdivisions, &c. will be stated hereafter. Physical Geography. General Aspect.-Europe, as already stated, is distinguished from all the other continents of the globe by the great irregularities of its shape and surface, and by the great number of its inland seas, gulphs, harbours, peninsulas, promontories, and headlands. This circumstance tends not only to influence very materially the climate and natural products of this continent, but to promote commerce and navigation. Seas. The great indentations in the boundaries of Europe, especially on its N.W. and S. sides, being its most important natural feature, the seas, on which these indentations depend, deserve the first place in our description. These, however, are by no means so extensive as is commonly supposed. The Mediterranean, the noblest of all inland seas, for example, is sometimes reckoned among the strictly European seas; but it would be quite as correct to describe it as belonging to Africa or Asia as to Europe. It is obviously common to them all; and cannot justly be said to belong to one more than another. This also is nearly the case with the Black Sea and the Caspian; though, as they are mostly surrounded by countries belonging to Asia, they must be considered as belonging rather to that continent than to Europe. The great arm of the Mediterranean called the Adriatic, and the Sea of Azoph, being almost wholly encircled by European countries, are most properly said to be European seas. The Baltic, however, is the real Mediterranean of Europe; and has, including its gulphs and bays, an immense extent of coast. The Zuydersee and the White Sea are also nearly landlocked by European countries, and consequently add to the number of European seas. Bays and Gulphs. The chief of these are the Gulph or Sea of Kara in N. Russia, the Bays of Archangel and Onega, belonging to the White Sea; the Gulphs of Bothnia, Finland, and Riga, belonging to the Baltic; the Bay of Biscay, forming a part of the Atlantic; the Gulph of Lyons, in the S. of France; those of Genoa, Naples, it may be certainly concluded that at a comparatively Taranto, Venice (head of the Adriatic), and Trieste, in recent period in the history of our planet, it formed Italy; of Arta, Lepanto, Egina, Volo, and Saloniki, in part of the bed of a vast ocean, of which the Baltic is Grecce. now the only considerable remaining portion. The Peninsulas, Capes, &c.— Having so irregular an out- innumerable shallow lakes in the N. of Germany, and line, Europe necessarily presents numerous peninsulas between the Baltic and the White Sea, are smaller and headlands. In the S. the principal peninsulas are, remnants of this great ocean; and independently of this, Spain, with Portugal; Italy, with its sub-peninsulas of the morasses, abounding in marine plants, and the sands Calabria and Otranto: Turkey, with Greece, which in- of N. Germany and Prussia, are incontestable evidences cludes the sub-peninsulas of the Morea and Salonica, and of the former submersion of the land. The more inland the Crimea. In the N. of Europe, the great Scandinavian and easterly parts of this plain, which seem to have first peninsula, and those of Lapland and Jutland, are the emerged from the sea, particularly in the Russian principal; and in the W. are the much less considerable governments of Kiev, Poltawa, Kharkov, Koursk, Orel, ones of Brittany and Cotentin in France, and that in- Kalouga, Toula, Tambof, Voroneje, &c., are covered cluding the counties of Devon and Cornwall in England. with a rich vegetable soil, varying from 3 to 5 ft. in The principal capes or headlands, proceeding from N. to depth: this highly fertile region, whose vast capaS., areCape Gelania, in Nova Zembla; the Northbilities are as yet but little known, has been estiCape and the Naze, in Norway; Cape Skagen, in Den- mated to comprise an extent of surface equal to that mark; Cape Wrath, in Scotland; the Land's End, in of France and Austria united! Next to this great England; Cape Clear, in Ireland; Capes La Hogue and plain, rank those watered by the Lower Danube (WalFinisterre, in France; Roca, St. Vincent, and the rock lachia and Bulgaria), the Middle Danube (the Greater of Gibraltar, in Spain and Portugal; Spartivento and and Less Hungarian plains), and the Upper Danube Leuca, in Italy; Passaro, in Sicily; and Matapan and (the plain of Bavaria); the plain watered by the Lower Colonna, in Grecce. (Malte-Brun, L'Europe, pp. 444- Rhine, that of Lombardy, and the Bohemian Basin. 451.; Balbi, Abrégé de Géogr. pp. 81-84.) The valleys of Europe generally are but insignificant, compared with those of Asia; but those of the Rhine, Upper Rhone, and Drave, deserve notice, as well for their extent as their picturesque beauty. Those of Norway and Scotland are commonly long and narrow, and their bottoms are often occupied by lakes, having the appearance of rivers. Islands. The principal, forming part of Europe (Iceland being excluded) are - Great Britain and Ireland, with their dependent groups in the Atlantic and North Sea; Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, Candia, the Cyclades and Sporades, the Ionian Islands, Dalmatian Archipelago, Malta, Elba, Majorca, Minorca, Ivica, the Lipari Isles, &c., in the Mediterranean and its cognate seas; Zealand, Funen, Laland, Bornholm, Oland, Gottland, Oezel Dagg, and the Aland Archipelago, in the Baltic; the Loffoden and other islands, on the coast of Norway; Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla, in the Arctic Ocean; Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, &c., in the British Channel; Ushant, Belleisle, and a few others, on the W. coast of France; and perhaps the Azores in the Atlantic, and Lampedusa, Linosa, &c., in the Mediterranean. Europe has no desert at all similar to those of the other great divisions of the globe. There are, however, some very extensive heaths or wastes. The principal are the steppes of Ryn, between the Wolga and Oural, and of the Wolga, between that river and the Don; the puztas of Hungary, the wilds of Sweden, Norway, and Lapland, the sterile districts of Stade, Hanover, Luneburg, and Zell, in the kingdom of Hanover; and of Pomerania, Brandenburg, &c. in PrusMountains. The European mountains are divided sia. The greater portion of the deps. Landes and by Bruguière, in his Orographie de l'Europe, into Gironde, in France, are covered with unproductive seven distinct systems-the Hesperic, Alpine, Sardo-heaths, as is also a considerable part of the Terra di Corsican, Tauric, Sarmatian, British and Hibernian, Bari in Italy. and Scandinavian. The Ouralian and Caucasian chains are omitted in this enumeration, being bounding ridges between Europe and Asia, and consequently belonging as much to the latter as to the former. We have already, however, briefly noticed Caucasus (see antè, p. 176.); and both it and the Oural are fully described in separate articles. The Alps compose the great central table-land of Europe, over a sixth part of which their ramifications are estimated to extend. (Malte-Brun, Europe, p. 454.) The summits of the Alpine system yield in elevation only to those of the Caucasus; Mont Blanc, in Savoy, the culminating point is 15,732 ft. in height. (Bruguière.) The Alps divide into 9 principal branches, which spread over Switzerland, France, Germany, the Austrian empire, Turkey, Greece, and Italy; the Apennines, Carpathians, Balkhan, &c. all belong to, or are intimately connected with, this system. The next in order is the Hesperic or Pyrenean system, which extends throughout Spain, Portugal, and a part of France. Its ranges, for the most part, run E. to W., through the Iberian peninsula: its culminating point is the Cerro de Mulhacen in the Sierra Nevada, 11,660 ft. high. (Bruguière; Malte-Brun.) The SardoCorsican system is confined, as its name implies, to the islands of Sardinia and Corsica: its highest summit appears to be that of Monte Rotondo, in Corsica, 9,068 ft. above the level of the sea. The Tauric system is comprised within the Crimea; its greatest elevation is 5,052 ft. The British and Irish system has but few summits of any considerable height: the principal are- in England, in Wales, Snowdon, 3,555 ft., and Cader-Idris, 3,550 ft.;cipal rivers will be, Wolga 130, Dniepr 72, Don 69, in Scotland, Ben Nevis (Inverness-shire), 4,370 ft., and Ben Macdhu and Cairntoul (Aberdeenshire), 4,327 and 4,245; and in Ireland, Carran Tual (co. Kerry), 3,410 ft. in height. The Scandinavian system is spread over Norway, Sweden, Lapland, and Finland: its principal chains run mostly N. and S.: its highest point, the Sne haetta, is 8,120 ft. in elevation. The Sarmatian system consists of a few scattered hill chains in Russia, Poland, and the N. E. part of Prussia: its greatest elevation in the plateau of Valdaï does not, however, reach more than 1,118 ft. above the level of the sea. (Bruguière, L'Orographie de l'Europe.) Flains and Valleys.-The whole of Lower Europe, -by which may be understood the entire extent of country from the Ouralian mountains and Astrakhan W. to the longitudes of Paris and London; including the greater part of Russia in Europe and Poland, Prussia Proper, the N. of Germany, Holland, Belgium, the N. of France, and the E. part of England, consists of an immense plain, interspersed only here and there with a few detached hill ranges of no great magnitude. This plain is very little elevated above the level of the sea; and we have elsewhere shown (see BALTIC), that Rivers. The great watershed of Europe, or the ridge dividing the waters which flow into the Mediterranean, or Black Sea, from those which flow into the Baltic and North Sea, runs through the continent in the general direction of N.E. and S. W. The courses of the principal rivers are, therefore, for the most part, S.Ê. or N.W.; of the six largest, the Wolga, Danube, Dniepr, Don, Rhine, and Dwina, the four first flow in the former, and the two last in the latter direction. The chief rivers of Europe may be classed according to the seas into which they discharge themselves. The Wolga (with the Kama) and the Oural, fall into the Caspian; the Don, Dniepr, Dniestr, and Danube, into the Black Sea, and Sea of Azoff; the Petchora and Dwina into the Arctic Ocean and White Sea; the Neva, Duna, Niemen, Vistula, and Oder (Russia, Poland, and Prussia), into the Baltic and its gulphs; the Elbe, Weser, Rhine, Meuse, Scheldt (N. Germany), into the North Sea; the Loire, Garonne, Douro, Tagus, and Guadalquivir, into the Atlantic; and the Ebro, Rhone, and Po, into the Mediterranean and its gulphs. Nearly all the great rivers are in the E. and N.E. parts of the Continent. Western Europe has but few rivers that have a course of more than 500 or 600 m. Still, however, this part of the Continent is extremely well watered; and some of the shortest rivers, as the Thames and Shannon, afford the greatest facilities to internal navigation and commerce. If the length of the Danube be represented by 100 parts, the length of the other prinRhine 49, Elbe 42, Vistula 41, Loire 37, Tagus 32, Rhone 38, Po 21, Tiber 10, and Thames 9, of these parts. Lakes. Are situated chiefly in Russia, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, Hungary, Austria, Prussia, Scotland, Ireland, and Greece. Among the principal are the following: Lake Ladoga (Russia) Malarn (do.) 1 Sq. M. 6,330 Lake of Geneva Sq. M 2,135 (Switzerland) Constance (do.) 240 200 840 Gorda (Italy) 180 760 Maggiore (do.) 150 1,600 685 Balaton (Hun- 150 Lagunes are numerous along the S. coasts of the Baltic, and some parts of the Mediterranean and Adriatic shores; and Holland is full of dykes and pools. The coasts of Norway and a part of Sweden abound with inlets of the sea, which often stretch a long distance inland; these, however, do not consist of stagnant waters. There are some extensive swamps in Europe, In as that occupying nearly all the basin of the Prièpec in N.E. parts of France; the high ranges of the Alps; Cor- The following table is taken from Humboldt (Annals of Philos., xi. 188.): the first division shows the temperature of the year, and of the various seasons in places having the same latitude; the second shows the different distribution of heat through the various seasons in places having the same mean annual temperature. The reader is referred, for more copious details with respect to European geology, to our articles on the different countries which it comprises. Natural Products. Minerals.-If nature have denied to Europe the precious metals in any very great quantity, their absence has been fully countervailed by the presence of iron, coal, salt, copper, tin, lead, and mercury, in greater abundance, perhaps, than in any other region of similar extent. Iron and salt are pretty universally diffused; coal, the most important of all the minerals, is most plentiful in W. Europe, and es pecially in Great Britain. Copper abounds chiefly in the N. and W.; in Sweden, and the extreme W. counties of England; and the tin mines of Cornwall are not only the most productive, but probably also the most ancient in the world, since it is nearly certain that they were wrought in the time of the Phoenicians. Lead is most plentiful in Spain and England: the quicksilver mines of Idria in the Austrian empire are extremely rich. Gold, silver, and platina, are found; the first chiefly in Transylvania, Hungary, and Russia; the second in various parts of central and W. Europe; and the last has been recently discovered in the Caucasian and Ouralian mountains. Zinc, cobalt, arsenic, and nearly all the other metals with which we are acquainted, are found within the limits of Europe, with almost every variety of precious stones. North Italy yields the finest statuary marble, and the south part of the same country and Sicily supply immense quantities of sulphur, vitriol, sal-ammoniac, and various other volcanic products. Nitre is found in great quantities in Hungary. Beside these products, Europe furnishes the finest granite and building stone of various kinds, serpentine, slate, porcelain clay, rock crystal, alabaster, amianthus, and most of the minerals that are in the highest degree useful to man. (Balbi; Tableau Minéralogique in Abrégé de Géogr., Ac. p. 95.) Vegetable Products. - The Flora of the extreme south |