CRAIGMILLAR CASTLE.

This beautiful ruin is situated about three miles to the southward of Edinburgh. It stands on a circular rocky hill, and commands an extensive prospect on every side; comprehending the city of Edinburgh, the distant mountains of the Highlands, and the fine

THE

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UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION, APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE.

GENERAL VIEW OF THE PRINCIPAL MOUNTAINS IN THE WORLD.

AN ACCOUNT OF THE PRINCIPAL MOUNTAINS IN THE WORLD.

THOSE majestic elevations which are found upon the surface of the earth in almost every part of the world are termed MOUNTAINS; and the inequalities of lesser height are distinguished by the name of HILLS. When several mountains occur together, covering a plain, they are called Groups, and a series several miles in length is termed a Chain, or Ridge, of Mountains. Mountain Groups are generally highest in the middle. Each group constitutes a connected whole, both in regard to its base and its acclivity; but it is not an entire mass, being intersected in many places, though never quite down to its foot or base. Mountainous Land, is composed of single mountains collected into chains, but which, not being joined together by a central or high mountain chain, do not form groups. Hilly Land consists of rounded and undulated elevations; it is much lower than mountain land, and by means of the plains, which some times constitute a part of high land, forms a transition into low land.

The form of mountains is generally conical, that is, gradually tapering from the base upwards, and usually terminating in a more or less pointed peak. Some of the countries covered with high mountains present, in the summer, different climates at different elevations, within a very narrow compass. We may ascend gradually from flourishing and delightful vallies, decorated with corn, fruit trees and vines, to pastures covered with odoriferous alpine plants, and, near the declivities, with evergreens, and perceive the vegetation diminishing and dwindling as we advance, till, at last, all organic life ceases, and the cold prevents all further progress.

and appear to descend almost perpendicularly into
the body of the earth. In their interior there are natural
caverns, abounding in crystallizations of great beauty,
and various minerals; but no calcareous spar, except
in the fissures or rents, which have some extent and
an evident direction. Of this kind are the Pyrenees,
the Alps, the Apenines, the Tyrolese and Carpathian
mountains, with some others in Europe; the Riphæan
Mountains, Caucasus, Taurus, Libanus, and the Him-
maleh range, in Asia; Atlas, in Africa;
and the Apala-
chian mountains, and the Andes or Cordilleras, in
America.

II. Another class of mountains are of volcanic origin. These are either detached or surrounded with groups of lower hills, the soil of which is heaped up in disorder, and consists of gravel and other loose substances. Many of these mountains are truncated, or have a funnel-shaped opening towards their summits, which are composed of, and surrounded by, heaps of lava and half vitrified bodies, making their gradual increase by strata raised up and discharged into the air, upon occasions of the eruption of subterraneous fire. Such, among many others, are Mounts Etna and Vesuvius, in Sicily and Naples; Adam's Peak, in the island of Ceylon; the Peak of Teneriffe, in the Canary Isles, &c. When very high mountains of thie kind are covered with marine shells, their summits are supposed to have once constituted part of ths bottom of the ocean. These mountains are usually more easy of access than those of the first class, and have fewer springs.

III. A third rank of mountains, whether isolated or disposed in a group, are such as are composed of stratified earth or stone, consisting of different substances, of various colours. These are produced by the slow deposits of water, or by soil gained in the time of great floods. Mountains of this kind are always of small elevation compared with those of the first order, and are round at the top, or covered with soil, frequently forming a pretty flat and extensive surface; on which are found sand and heaps of round pebbles, similar to those which have been exposed to the waves on the sea beach.

The first view of such amazing heights, (some of which are not less than five miles above the level of the sea, others four miles, and many two and three miles) leads to a belief that they must greatly detract from the regularity of the earth's spherical form: but on comparing them with the bulk of the earth, they sink into insignificancy, bearing in reality no greater proportion to it than a grain of sand would bear to an artificial globe of twelve inches diameter, or than the little risings on the rind of an orange bear to its fruit. Mountains are supposed by naturalists to have different origins, and to date their commencements from various periods. I. Those which form a chain, and are covered with snow, are accounted primitive, or antediluvian, that is, to have existed before the Flood. They greatly exceed all other mountains in height; in general, their elevation is very sudden, and their ascent steep and difficult. Their shape is mostly pyramidal; they are crowned with sharp prominent rocks, from which the soil has been washed away by rain, presenting an awful and horrible aspect. Their sides are less steep, and they abound in thundering cascades, frightful precipices, and deep chasms or valleys. The depressions and excavations correspond with the quantity of water, the motion of which is quickened in its fall, and sometimes produces a sinking or inclination of the mountain. The wrecks to be found at the foot of most peaks, shew how much they have suffered from the hand of time. IV. The strata of mountains, which are lower and There the eye meets with enormous rocks, heaped of more recent date, or formed by recent accidents, upon each other in an almost inconceivable state of sometimes appear to rest upon, or to take their rise disorder and decay. On the summit of these moun- from the sides of primitive mountains, which they tains, which are only a series of peaks, frequently de-surround, and of which they form the first steps in tached, the prominent rocks are covered with perpetual snow and ice, and surrounded by floating clouds, which are dispersed into dew. These primitive mountains are composed of vast masses of quartz, destitute of shells, and of all organized marine matter;

The interior of these mountains consists of numerous strata, almost horizontally disposed, containing shells, marine productions, and fish bones, in great quantities. These fossils are intermixed and confounded with heaps of organized bodies of another species, presenting a picture of surprising disorder, and affording indications that some extraordinary and violent inundation, such as the general Deluge, has accumulated in the greatest confusion and precipitation, foreign substances of very opposite qualities. Mountains of this class may be considered as composed of the wrecks of once organized bodies. In these mountains we likewise find wood, prints of plants, strata of clay, marl, and chalk; different beds of stone, succeeding each other, as slate, marble, (often full of sea shells,) plaster stone; and ochre, bitumen, mineral, salt and alum.

the ascent; and they end by being insensibly lost in the plains. The strata of recent mountains are not always similar as to number and thickness; some are only a quarter of an inch thick, others more than ten feet. In some places, thirty or forty beds suc

ceed each other; in others, only three or four. According to M. Lehmann, the lowest stratum is always ́pit coal, resting on a coarse iron gravel or sand. Above the pit coal are strata of slate, schistus, &c. &c. the upper part of the strata is occupied by lime stone and salt springs.

It has been frequently remarked that the east side of a mountain running from north to south, is comparatively low, sloping off into an extensive plain, while the west side is lofty, rugged, and broken. Those which stretch from east to west in their length, have their south side steeper than their north.

No volcano has yet been discovered on the continent of Africa; but most of its insular groups are distinguished by such phenomena. These the Professor has omitted in his estimate.

The summits of very high mountains, even in the warmest climates, are constantly covered with frozen snow, in consequence of the great rarefaction of the air. The line where perpetual frost commences, is not the same in all countries; being lowest towards the poles, and highest under the equator. At the poles it is level with the surface of the earth; from thence it rises in a curve to the altitude of 15,744 feet at the equator. Hence, in some countries, places are not only habitable, but even pleasant and comfortable at elevations, where, under other latitudes, neither animal nor vegetable life could exist, by reason of the intensity of the unremitting frost. The lowest line of perpetual snow, under the equator, is, as already stated, 15,744 feet above the level of the sea. In latitude 49° N. it is lowered to 15,040 feet; in latitude 43° to 46° it descends to 8,640 feet, or 908 feet below the level of the city of Quito, at the equator, and no less than 4808 feet, (upwards of three Antisana, in the same quarter. The city of Mexico, at an elevation of 7472 feet, is in a hot climate, which ripens all the tropical fruits, as pine-apples, oranges, &c. ; yet in Sweden, the line of perpetual snow descends to 5184 feet, and in Norway, to 4480 feet: the medium of the two being half a mile below the temperature of the more elevated Mexican territory.

Baron Humboldt has pointed out a striking difference between the formation of the mountains in the eastern and western hemispheres. Mont Blanc and others of the highest Alps, rear their peaks of granite above the clouds: but in America, "the newest flætztrap, or whinstone, which in Europe, appears only in low mountains, or at the foot of those of great magnitude, covers the mightiest heights of the Andes. Chimboraço and Antisana are crowned by vast walls of porphyry, rising to the height of 6000 or 7000 feet; while basalt, which, in our continent, has never been observed higher than 4000 feet, is, on the pin-quarters of a mile) lower than the inhabited farm of nacle of Pichincha, seen rearing aloft its crested steeps, like towers amidst the sky, Other secondary formations, as limestone, with its accompaniment of petrified shells and coal, are also found at greater heights in the New than in the Old World, though the disproportion is not so remarkable."

Of all the phenomena to which mountainous regions are subject, those of volcanoes are the most awful and sublime. They are not common to all mountains, but restricted to certain regions, where the convulsions they occasion occur at irregular intervals; as longer or shorter periods are required for preparing those immense masses of ignited materials and rivers of liquid fire, which commonly attend their fearful eruptions. When the phenomena occur beneath the sea, the substances thrown up sometimes rise above the surface of the waters, and form rocks and islands; as in the case of the Azores, Stromboli, and the Santorin islands. The situation of these terrific yet sublime features of nature is strikingly contrasted in the two hemispheres. In the Old World, they are chiefly found in islands and peninsular extremities; in the New, they are spread through the very heart of the continent. Some exceptions must however be made to this general rule. The principal chains of Europe, Asia, and Africa, also are destitute of volcanoes; but in America, many of the most stupendous ranges present an almost uninterrupted blaze. Nor are the substances thrown out by both series of volcanoes always alike besides the common lava and stones of the European and Asiatic volcanoes, those of America throw up scorified clay, carbon, sulphur, and water, accompanied, in some instances, by numbers of boiled fishes.

:

The limits of perpetual snow in different latitudes.
laid down by M. Humboldt, are as follow:
Under the equator, and thence to 3° N. & S 15,500
At 20° of latitude

12,194

11,500

10,200

.

8,136

8,033
7,853

Above 75° of N. latitude at the level of the sea.

General View of the Mountains.

The annexed plate exhibits a comparative view of some of the principal mountains, of which the heights have been ascertained. The summits are numbered for convenience of reference; and the heights are shown by a scale on the left hand, in thousands of feet. In this scale, the line below 1 denotes the level of the sea; the line above the figure represents a perpendicular elevation of 1000 feet. The next line, above 2, indicates 2000 feet; and so of the rest, to the head of the print, when 27,000 feet, or rather more than five miles and a quarter, terminates the scale. By applying a ruler, or a slip of paper, with an even edge, across the print, parallel to the top or bottom, the height of any given mountain may be ascertained, by noting where the ruler or slip cuts the scale. Or to find a point mentioned in the description, lay the ruler on the scale at the number indicative of the given thousand of feet, and it will pass over or near the figure of reference on the mountain. Some 97 places, also, having remarkable elevations, are marked 19 a, b, &c., and may be discovered in the same way.

The number of volcanoes at present known, according to Professor Jameson, is 195, distributed as follows: European continent 1 Asiatic islands American continent islands

islands Asiatic continent

12
8

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MOUNTAINS OF ASIA.

THE Asiatic mountains, most of which run in immense chains, may be considered in the following order:

1. The Poyas or Ural chain, which partly separates Great Tartary from Europe, extending from the source of the river Kara to the northern shore of the Aral lake

and branching on the south-east, under different names, till it joins the Altaic range.

2. The Altai chain, divided into Great and Little. The Great Altai ranges across Mongolia, and includes mounts Arak, Mousart, and Bogdo; the Little Altai, to the north of the Great chain includes Uluk, Tag,

Bereka, and Savamen mountains, and separates In-, points, estimated at 9520 feet in height, are between dependant Tartary and Siberia from Minjolia.

References to the Plate.

MOUNTAINS OF AMERICA.

NEXT to those of Asia, the mountains of America, claim attention from their stupendous elevation and imposing features. Those which form the chain of the Andes, were long supposed to be the highest in the world; but recent observations have transferred this claim to the Himalayan chain, in the eastern hemisphere. The Cordillera de los Andes has, however, characteristics of a peculiar kind, calculated to strike the beholder with admiration and terror. Vast cataracts by which the water is precipitated down a perpendicular depth of 600 feet, into dark and frightful gulfs; tremendous volcanoes, in constant activity; some ejecting lava, others discharging vast quantities of boiling water, clay, and sulphur; and immense chasms, between 4000 and 5000 feet in perpendicular