posed that there are much higher summits in this portion of the range and that their average elevation is between 7,000 and 8,000 feet.

Eastward of Morocco, as in Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, the elevation of these mountains scarcely ever exceeds 3,000 feet.

The Kong Mountains are in the west of Africa, north of the equator. They extend in an east and west direction, nearly parallel to the shores of the Gulf of Guinea, but upwards of 150 miles inland. The average elevation is supposed to be about 4,000 feet.

The Nieuvald Mountains extend east and west through the northern part of the Cape Colony. In the eastern portion of their course they are called the Sneeuberg or Snowy Mountains. Compass Berg, in this part of the range, is 10,200 feet high.

Table Mountain, at the south-western extremity of the continent, and in the immediate neighbourhood of Cape Town, forms, with some adjoining heights, a detached mountain group. Its elevation above the level of the sea is 3,816 feet; and, as its name denotes, the summit is flat like a table.

The Cameroon Mountains, near the coast of the Bight of Biafra, are a detached group. Their highest summit, "the Peak of the Cameroons,” is 13,739 feet above the level of the sea.

TABLE-LANDS OR PLATEAUS.

A Table-land or Plateau is a plain or tract of flat land elevated considerably above the level of the sea. Table-lands occur generally in the central parts of a country; and they are usually skirted or supported by mountain ranges.

ASIA is particularly remarkable for the number and extent of its table-lands. In fact, almost the whole of the central part of this great continent, from the Altaï Mountains on the north, to the Himalaya Mountains on the south, consists of a succession of tablelands. Almost the whole of Tibet, the vast desert of Gobi, and the greater part of Mongolia are table-lands. The elevation of these table-lands varies from about 3,000 feet at the southern base of the Altaï Mountains to upwards of 10,000 feet as they approach the northern slopes of the Himalayas, particularly in Tibet, in which there are plateaus upwards of 15,000 feet above the level of the sea. In Hindostan, Afghanistan, Persia, Armenia, Arabia, and Asia Minor, there are also extensive table-lands, all of which are some thousands of feet above the level of the sea.

SOUTH AMERICA is also remarkable for the extent and elevation

Kong.-This, it is said, is an African word for mountains.

As the Deccan, with the less extensive table-lands of Malwa and Mysore. The Deccan is from 3,000 to 4,000 feet above the level of the

sea.

of its table-lands. The principal are: Titicaca, Quito, Pasco, El Despoblado, which have been already described; and there are several others of considerable extent along the whole chain of the Andes in Central America, and among the mountains of Brazil and Venezuela. NORTH AMERICA, too, contains several extensive tablelands; Mexico and Utah are the principal. See page 127.

In the interior of AFRICA there are also extensive table-lands, but their elevation is not remarkable. The Sahara or Great Desert is a table-land, but it is only about 1,200 feet above the level of the sea. The table-land of Abyssinia is perhaps the highest in Africa. It is upwards of 3,000 feet above the level of the sea.

EUROPE has also its table-lands, but they are not remarkable either for their extent or elevation. The principal are in the interior of Spain, in Bavaria, and in the south of Norway. See pp. 135 and 137.

Table-lands have the same effect upon temperature and vegetation as mountains; and hence in countries and places so circumstanced, the climate is much colder than their respective latitudes would lead us to expect. For example, Tibet may be said to be a comparatively cold country; and in Quito, which is in the heart of the torid zone, the climate is found to be cool and agreeable. See pp. 104 and 121.

QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION ON CHAP. VII.

Pages 116-120.-The utility of mountains? 2. How are springs, brooks, and rivers formed? 3. Can you state generally the great importance of mountains ? 4. How many classes of mountains? 5. Can you give the general height of each class? 6. In which class are the highest mountains in Europe? 7. In which class the highest in Ireland? 8. The highest terrestrial elevation attained by man? 9. The highest balloon ascent? 10. The elevation of Quito? Pages 120-124.-The principal mountains of Asia? out on the map, and state what you know of them?

2. Trace them

Pages 124-128.-The principal mountains of America ? 2. Trace them out on the map, and state what you have read about them?

Pages 128-138.-The principal mountains in Europe? 2. Point them out on the map, and state what you have read about them. 3. Into how many distinct systems might the mountains of Europe be divided?

Pages 138, 139.-The principal mountains of Africa? 2. State what you know of them?

Pages 139, 140.-What is a table-land or plateau? 2. The principal and most remarkable in the world? 3. Their effect upon climate?

Titicaca.-See p. 120.

El Despoblado.-A desert region in La Plata and Bolivia. Its Cevation above the sea is from 13,000 to 14,000 feet.

CHAPTER VIII.

PLAINS AND DESERTS.

WHEN the earth's surface appears to any considerable extent level, or even slightly undulating, it is called a PLAIN. Plains, according to the nature of the climate and soil, are either fertile, or unfit for cultivation. In the British Islands, there are specimens of both kinds; of the latter in our bogs, morasses, and heaths. But it is only in continents that we are to expect plains hundreds of miles in extent. The north and north-east of the European continent consists of, with few interruptions, one immense plain. This vast tract, which extends from the shores of the German Ocean to the base of the Uralian Mountains, comprises the Netherlands," Denmark, Northern Germany, and almost all European Russia. The only elevations of note by which the surface of this vast plain is broken, are the Valdai Hills in Russia, the highest of which do not exceed 1,200 feet. But, with few exceptions, such as the STEPPES of Russia, the PUSZTA of Hungary, and the marshy and sterile tracts which are found in every country in Europe, particularly in those which border on the Baltic Sea and German Ocean, the European plains are fertile and cultivated. There is no plain in this continent of sufficient wildness and extent to deserve the

Netherlands.-That is, low, or rather lower land; nether being the comparative of neath, as in beneath. The word HOLLAND has a simi lar signification, namely, hollow, or low land.

The principal in Europe are, the steppes of Ryn, between the Volga and the Ural river; and the steppes of the Volga, between that river and the Don. Siberia, or Asiatic Russia, also abounds in steppes. It is remarkable that some of the steppes have, from the beds of sand, marine shells, and pools of salt water which they contain, all the appearance of the bed of the sea.

• Puszta.-The puszta are properly extensive and barren tracts covered with deep sand, which indicate that they at some former period formed a portion of the bed of an inland sea. This term has however, been extended to all the marshy and swampy tracts of country between the rivers Theiss and Danube, the extent of which has been estimated at 2,425 square miles. The estimated extent of the great plain of Hungary, in which the puszta occur, is 21,000 square miles, that is equal to about two-thirds of Ireland.

d As the Pontine Marshes, the Campagna di Roma, and the Tuscan Maremme, in Italy.

name of DESERT. It is only in the other great divisions of the world that deserts, properly so called, are found.

The largest and most remarkable desert in the world is the Sahara, or great African desert. It is, as its name imports, a vast sea of sand. Like the sea, too, its surface, when agitated by the winds, rises in waves, sometimes mountainhigh; which, as they often move with great rapidity, have been known to overwhelm whole caravans of travellers. Sometimes the sands are raised by whirlwinds in the form of water-spouts, or moving pillars, whose tops reach almost to the clouds. Twenty or thirty of such pillars have been seen at once, moving in the same direction; and when they intervene between the spectator and the rising sun, their appearance is sublime and terrific beyond conception; for as his rays pass through them they resemble immense moving pillars of fire! In fact, it is more difficult and much more dangerous to cross the sea of sand than it is to cross the Pacific Ocean, which extends over half the globe. Nor would it be possible to cross it, but for the oases, or fertile spots, which are met with here and there, like islands in the ocean.b

"The tufted isles

That verdant rise amid the Lybian wild."

At those happy spots, the parched and exhausted travellers refresh themselves and their camels-the ships of the desert, as they have been beautifully called. And here, too, they lay in fresh supplies of water, which is carried for the use of the caravan in large leathern bottles. The want of water is the great danger to which caravans are exposed; for their entire stock is sometimes dried up under the parching influence of winds peculiar to the desert. When this occurs, unless a fountain is at hand to afford them a fresh supply, both men and camels die from thirst. It sometimes happens,

a As in the ocean nothing is seen in the horizon but an expanse of water, so in these immense deserts, nothing appears in view but a level expanse of sand; and as the sands are constantly shifting, there are no permanent landmarks to guide travellers in their course. They are, therefore, obliged to direct their course by the compass or the stars, as if they were at sea.

b The ancients compared the oases to the spots upon the leopard's skin. Much of the beauty and fertility ascribed to them, is evidently due to the contrast between them and the burning deserts by which they are surrounded.

e Such as the Simoom. See page 179.

too, that they find the fountain from which they expected a supply of water dried up under the same influences. In 1805, a caravan proceeding from Timbuctoo to Tafilet, not having found water at a resting place, the whole persons belonging to it, 2,000 in number, with about 1,800 camels, perished miserably!

The deserts of Arabia, Syria, and Persia, are saharas on smaller scales. We need not, therefore, stop to describe them. One distinguishing feature of the great desert in Persia is, that many parts of its surface are covered with saline incrustations, from which circumstance it is called the Great Salt Desert. The natives call it the Deria Kuveer, or salt sea; and the sandy wastes they call sahra. The Great Salt Desert is upwards of 700 miles in length."

In Hindostan there are extensive sandy deserts between the Indus and the branches of the Ganges; but they are not of so desolate a character as those which have been described.

In Central Asia, which consists of an immense PLATEAU or TABLE-LAND, is the great desert of Gobi, in the middle of which is the Shamo, or sea of sand. The length of the great desert of Gobi is about 1,200 miles, and the breadth from 500 to 700. Through the middle, for the whole of its length, extends the Shamo, or sand sea, varying in breadth from 150 to 250 miles. The great elevation of this desert, and its greater distance from the equator, preserve it from the scorching heats of the saharas of Africa and Arabia ; but it is equally destitute of vegetation and water, and camels only can be used in crossing it.

In America there are immense plains and extensive deserts. The vast tract included between the Rocky and Alleghany Mountains on the one hand, and the Gulf of Mexico and the Great Lakes on the other, may be regarded as one immense plain. The southern portion of this vast plain is exceedingly fertile, but the western and north-western parts of it abound in deserts, SAVANNAHS, and PRAIRIES. In the western part of this plain, between the Ozark and Rocky Mountains, is the great American Desert. Its average

⚫ It commences on the north at the base of the Elburz mountain, in about the 36th degree, north latitude, and uniting with the desert of Kerman, extends south to about the 30th degree; on the other hand, it extends from about the 51st to the 60th degree of longitude, occupying all the central and eastern parts of the country. It has a few oases, or fertile spots, but they do not amount to five per cent. of its extent.