decline more rapidly towards Spain than France; and the Ghauts of India are precipitous on the west, and sloping in the opposite direction. There are few appearances more deceptive than that amount of inclination which a distant mountain exhibits to the eye; the apparent steepness very far exceeding the real declivity. The Silla mountain, near Caraccas, rising to the height of from eight to nine thousand feet, at an angle of 53° 28', probably makes the nearest approach to perpendicularity of any great elevation yet known.

TABLE SHOWING THE LENGTH OF PRINCIPAL CHAINS, WITH THEIR GREATEST HEIGHT.

Chains.

Length in Miles.

Greatest Height in feet.

Appalachian mountains, from the State of Alabama to New
Brunswick

Alps, from Capo della Mella, on the Gulf of Genoa, to the
frontiers of Hungary

Altai, from the right bank of the river Irtish to the south
of Lake Baikal

Andes, from Cape Horn to the plain of Panama
Apennines, from the Gulf of Genoa to the extremity of Italy
Atlas, from Cape Nun, on the Atlantic Ocean, to the Gulf
of Sidra, on the Mediterranean...

Balkan, ancient Hæmus, from Sophia, in Bulgaria, to Cape
Emineh, on the Black Sea.......
Bolor Tagh, or Cloudy Mountains, from the Punjaub to the
parallel of 450

Carpathians, from the plain of the Upper Oder to Cronstadt,
in Transylvania....

....

Caucasus, extending from the Black Sea to the Caspian
Dovrefield, or Dofrines, with the prolongations, from the
Naze of Norway to the North Cape.

Ghauts, Western, from the valley of Coimbatoor to the
Taptee river, above Surat

Grampians, from the coast of Argyleshire to that of Kincar-
dineshire.

Himalaya, including the Hindoo-Koosh, or Indian Cau-
casus, from Afghanistan to the western provinces of
China...

Kuenlun, from the Bolor Tagh to the west provinces of
China, a range parallel to the Himalaya.......
Lebanon, from the mouth of the Orontes, in Syria, to the
south of the Dead Sea

1100

...... 1100

11,427

3600 ............

17,860

1500

250

Pyrenees, from the Bay of Biscay to the Mediterranean.... 225
Rocky Mountains, from the south limit of the table-land
of Mexico, to the Arctic Ocean.....

Thian-Chan, or Celestial Mountains, from the Bolor Tagh
into Mongolia, a range parallel to the Kuenlun, and
Himalaya......

Ural, from the Arctic Ocean to the sources of the river Ural north-east of the Caspian Sea

1300

Occasional interruptions occur in the general direction of a chain, from its component parts spreading out laterally, beyond which the general direction is resumed. These deviating masses, common in the Andes, are called mountainknots.

F

94. The configuration of mountains is very diversified, conical, dome-shaped, saddle-backed, pyramidal, serrated, and amorphous, or reducible to no regular form. In the serrated, or notched structure, that of a saw, the notches are frequently thinned into finely-pointed needle shapes ; and hence the term aiguille applied to several of the towering spires of the Alps. One of the local names of Mont Blanc is Bosse de Dromedaire, from its resemblance to the back of a dromedary, as seen from the valley of Chamouni. The Table Mountain, at the Cape of Good Hope, has been so named from its similarity to a gigantic altar. The Silla de Caraccas derives its name from the depression between the two summits, the word Silla signifying a saddle. The following Table contains the height of the loftiest mountains in their respective localities, reckoned from the level of the sea.

TABLE OF THE HEIGHTS ABOVE THE SEA OF THE PRINCIPAL MOUNTAINS OF THE GLOBE.

Asterisks denote Volcanoes active during the historic period.

(1.) Culminating point of the British Isles.

(2.) The mean height of the Pyrenees, estimated from the mean height of the passes, is 7,990 feet, which is 300 feet higher than that of the Alps, though the peaks of the latter rise to a far greater elevation.

(3.) Culminating point of Europe.

(4.) Highest point of Germany north of the Danube.

(5.) Highest point of Europe north of the Alps.

(6.) Highest known point of the globe.

(7.) Discovered by the Rev. Mr. Rebmann, of the Church Missionary Society,

1849.

(8.) Culminating point of North America.

(9.) The celebrated metalliferous mountain.

(10.) Culminating point of the New World.

(11.) Discovered in South Victoria Land, by Sir James C. Ross, during the Antartic expedition, 1841.

95. The mountains of the torrid zone are inhabited by man to a very considerable elevation, but the line of perpetual snow descending more and more as we recede from the tropics, renders his occupation of a much lower level impossible in temperate climates.

TABLE OF THE HEIGHTS ABOVE THE SEA OF SOME REMARKABLE INHABITED SITES.