winds are experienced towards the close of summer, or about the time of the autumnal equinox, called Levanters, from being specially common and violent in that part of the Mediterranean. In summer, the highly-heated air of the African desert ascends with great rapidity, and currents are created from the colder atmosphere of the north, especially of the north-east, where the Armenian and Caucasian highlands rise above the snow-line. The winds thus occasioned are typhoons, which furiously sweep over sea and shore, identical with the Etesian or annual' winds of the ancients, dreaded by the Greek and Roman mariners. West winds carry the moisture evaporated from the surface of the Mediterranean to Syria and Palestine. They are hence called in Arab speech the fathers of the rains' in those countries. At Jerusalem, the remark was made, ‘When ye see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway ye say, There cometh a shower, and so it is.' Water-spouts are often seen on the surface of this sea, raised by the whirlwinds caused by the meeting of opposite currents of air. As many as fourteen have been observed

at the same time.

Volcanic action is strongly developed in the Mediterranean area, not only by sites of igneous activity often at present in eruption, but by desolating earthquakes, which have repeatedly visited southern Italy, Asia Minor, Syria, and Palestine. Etna, in Sicily, and Vesuvius, overlooking the bay of Naples, have had their phenomena better noted than any other volcanoes in the world. Stromboli, one of the Lipari Isles, has been called 'the great lighthouse of the Mediterranean,' from its constant blaze. The Gulf of Santorin, one of the Cyclades, in the Archipelago, nearly incloses some small islands which have been thrown up from the deep within the period of authentic history. One emerged rather more than a century before the Christian era; another in the year 1573; a third was formed at intervals in the years 1707-1709; and in 1866 a new cone was erupted in the centre of the gulf. Hotham Island appeared off the coast of Sicily in 1831, as the result of violent submarine disturbance, and subsided after an existence of about three months. It is supposed that the coasts of Africa and Europe were once united where the Strait of Gibraltar now exists, and were separated by some great convulsion of nature, which rent asunder the Pillars of Hercules-the Gibraltar Rock and Mount Mousa on the opposite shore-opening communication between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. The opinion goes back to the time of the old Greek geographers.

The flora of the Mediterranean is distinguished by the abundance of plants belonging to the two orders of labiate and caryophillæ. Some tropical families are also met with, as the date-palm, with grasses belonging to the genus Panicum, or millet, and the true Cyperaceæ, or sedges. Vegetation never ceases entirely, but the vividly green turf characteristic of more northern climes is generally absent from the landscapes. Fragrant cistuses, or rock-roses, acquire their maximum in the Spanish Peninsula, frequently extending over many square leagues, to the exclusion of almost every other plant. The cork-oak appears abundantly in the same region, and in the island of Sardinia. Varieties of the pine tribe largely compose the forests. One species, popularly distinguished as the Mediterranean Pine, from its general distribution, has been described by Sir Humphrey Davy with the feeling of a poet and the eye of a painter:

"Thy hues are green as is the vernal tint

Of those fair meads where Isis rolls along

Her silver floods. And not amongst the snows,
Nor on the hoary mountain's rugged crest,

Is thy abode; but on the gentle hill,
Amongst the rocks, and by the river's side,
Rises thy graceful and majestic form,
Companion of the olive and the vine,

HIGHEST POINT OF EUROPE.

And that Hesperian tree whose golden fruit
Demands the zephyr warmed by southern suns.
In Winter thou are verdant as in Spring,-
Unchangeable in beauty; and thy reign
Extends from Calpe to the Bosphorus.
Beneath thy shade the northern African

Seeks shelter from the sunshine; and the Greek

In Tempe's vale, forms from thy slender leaves
A shepherd's coronal."

297

The fauna includes 404 out of the 643 species of European sea-fishes, some of which are peculiar to it; but the number of species of the useful kind is not so great as in British waters. Tunny-fish enter regularly in shoals from the Atlantic in spring, proceed along the European shore, penetrate to the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to spawn, and return by the coasts of Africa to the ocean. The fishery is extensively prosecuted on the eastern shores of Spain, those of southern France and Italy, around Sicily, and in the neighbourhood of Constantinople. Red coral is abundant on the coasts of Provence, the Balearic Isles, and Sicily, but especially on those of Africa near Bona and Barca. Sponge is a valuable product of the Archipelago, where diving for it furnishes the means of subsistence to many of the islanders. The great seats of the foreign commerce are Marseilles, Trieste, Constantinople, Smyrna, and Alexandria. The first, second, and last of these chiefly share the passenger-traffic; but will probably have to surrender a large portion of it to Brindisi in Italy, and Port Said at the head of the Suez Canal. No sea is now better known or navigated with greater skill and safety than the Mediterranean. But on its surface in ancient times the Roman poet pictured the pilot of Æneas beating about through three sunless days and starless nights, uncertain of his position, while the Trojan stretched out his arms to heaven, lamenting that he had not fallen with fierce Hector on the Ilian plain.

II. THE HIGHEST POINT OF EUROPE.

Mont Blanc has long been considered beyond all dispute the highest mountain of Europe. But its claim to the distinction has recently been called in question. Previous to the Russians extending their arms beyond the Don and the Volga, the lower courses of those rivers were regarded as defining the limits of Europe in a south-easterly direction, The country thence to the Caspian and the Caucasus was deemed part of Asia; and in their physiognomy and habits at present, by far the larger number of the inhabitants are decidedly Asiatic. Then Mont Blanc was strictly the mountain-monarch of Europe. But since the advance of the Russian dominion southerly to and beyond the Caucasus, the main ridge of the grand chain has been selected by chartographers for the boundary-line between European and Asiatic ground. Now the culminating point is at a considerable distance northward of the main range, or on the European side of it, where Mount Elburz rises to the height of 18,526 feet, which is 2776 feet higher than Mont Blanc. But it is entirely arbitrary to run the frontier along a particular line on the mountains; and the Caucasus is an integral portion of the mountain-system of Western Asia. Most physical geographers will therefore be disposed to follow the indications of nature, and take the huge landmark as a whole for the boundary, thereby retaining the culminating point within Asiatic limits, and leaving Mont Blanc in undisturbed possession of the pre-emiThe summit of Elburz was reached by three Englishmen in 1869-Messrs Freshfield, Moore, and Tucket, members of the Alpine Club, the first Europeans who have performed the feat.

nence on European soil.

SECTION I.-THE BRITISH ISLES AND EUROPEAN DEPENDENCIES.

CHAPTER I.

GENERAL VIEW OF THE BRITISH ISLES.

HE large island of Great Britain, of which England and Wales form the southern division and Scotland the northern, with the smaller insular mass of Ireland, and very numerous adjuncts closely investing their shores, constitute the United Kingdom, subject to the British crown, the home-territory and head-quarters of the most extensive and influential empire of the globe. The archipelago is situated to the westward of the European mainland, from which it is separated by the English Channel on the south, and the North Sea on the east. These are arms of the Atlantic Ocean, which directly enclose it in other directions, where the power of the magnificent billows is strikingly proclaimed by the shattered and invaded aspect of the coasts. The most southerly point, one of the Scilly group, is in 49° 53' north latitude; and the most northerly, one of

SUNRISE AND SUNSET IN THE BRITISH ISLES.

299

the Shetland cluster, in 60° 49'. This range of latitude, amounting to 10° 56', gives a resulting distance of rather more than 750 miles in the direction of the meridian, which is the entire extent of the insular series, north and south. But the great proportion of the territory, and the vast majority of the population, have a much smaller latitudinal range. Taking the parallel of 55° for a dividing-line, there are nearly equal portions of latitude to the north and south of it. The northern portion includes the main mass of Scotland, with its neighbouring isles, and very small sections of England and Ireland, while the southern embraces nearly the whole of Ireland and England, with Wales, and their adjacent islands. In the south division, the proportion of territory is more than two and a half to one, as compared with that in the north, while the amount of population is in the ratio of nearly eight to one. Lowestoft Ness, on the coast of Suffolk, 1° 46′ east of Greenwich, and the Blasquet Isles off the coast of Kerry, 10° 30' west, define the extent of the archipelago in longitude. This amounts to 12° 16', equivalent to a linear distance of 500 miles.

Sunrise and sunset visit the most easterly coasts full three-quarters of an hour before they are witnessed on the more westerly, owing to difference of longitude; and at the southern and northern extremities of the kingdom, there is a marked variation in the length of the days and nights at the solstices, occasioned by the range of latitude. In the south, the midsummer day extends to sixteen hours, eight minutes; and in the north, to eighteen hours, forty-eight minutes, leaving an interval varying from somewhat less than eight hours to rather more than five for the length of the night. But at both extremities, the sun then dips to such a small extent below the horizon, that his rays continue to reach the higher regions of the atmosphere, and the interval is one of twilight only. This is specially the case in the northern localities where the solar declension is the least, and hence, with a sky clear of clouds, there the midsummer night is day-like. In the Orkneys and Shetlands, reading, writing, and other delicate operations may be performed without artificial light, when the time-piece is marking the close of one day and the beginning of another. At midnight,' says a correspondent at Balta Sound, 'on the 21st of June, I have often read such print as Chambers's Edinburgh Journal.' The note of life from the animal creation, though less frequent than by day, is far from being interrupted. In their respective haunts may be heard the merry tune of the sedge-warbler, the bleating cry of the snipe, the whistle of widgeon and teal, the quack of the mallard, with a clamorous outburst at intervals from varieties of waders and water-fowl.

The geographical position of the British Isles is peculiar, interesting, and influential. They are so closely sea-girt, that no portion of territory is more than 120 miles from a shore; and there is only a very small area at this inconsiderable distance. The greater part of England, with the whole of Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, is within fifty miles of the salt-water line. Yet the central point of the hemisphere, which contains the greatest amount of the land-surface of the globe, falls within the limits of the archipelago, and is only a few miles from the centre of the Bristol Channel. This landhemisphere embraces the whole of Europe and Africa, all Asia and America, except the narrow peninsula of Malacca, and the tapering extremity of South America. A vast oceanic surface distinguishes the opposite hemisphere, in which, with the exceptions named, the land is wholly insular, and its collective area is quite insignificant in comparison with that of the great continents.

Great Britain is the largest of the European islands, the most important in the world, and the seventh in point of magnitude, ranking after Australia, Borneo, New Guinea, Niphon, Sumatra, and Madagascar. The nearest approach to the continent is made by the south-east corner of England, where the distance is little more than twenty miles to

the opposite shores of France. From the correspondence of the rocks on both sides of the intervening strait, and the existence of the same animals in historic times, as the bear, wolf, and beaver, with the comparatively shallow depth of the water, it is inferred that an isthmus here once connected the island with the continent as a peninsular projection, which the constant gnawing of the waves or some sudden irruption removed. This idea was current long before attention had been paid to the geology of the shores, and is mentioned by Sir Thomas More in his Utopia. To the westward, the separating English Channel gradually increases in breadth till the extremities of England and France in that direction are upwards of 100 miles asunder, while to the northward the North Sea expands to 400 miles between Scotland and Denmark.

The extreme points of the island are Dunnet Head, on the north, a high promontory in Caithness overlooking the Pentland Firth; the Lizard Point, on the south, a headland chiefly of serpentine in Cornwall, commonly the last land seen and the first observed by ships entering the Atlantic, and returning from it; Lowestoft Ness, on the east, a low cape adjoining that port in Suffolk; and Ardnamurchan Point, on the west, a projection of the county of Argyle. No line can be drawn intersecting the whole surface due north and south, owing to the general inclination of the land in the direction of the meridian being north by west. But a straight line, extended from Cape Wrath, in Sutherlandshire, to the coast of Sussex, or north-west and south-east, will measure about 600 miles, without cutting any portion of the sea. The greatest breadth, due east and west, is from St David's Head, in Pembrokeshire, to the Naze in Essex, and amounts to nearly 300 miles. But the contractions are numerous and marked, owing to the occurrence of far-penetrating inlets and firths. Generally, the island narrows from south to north, and hence its form is often described as rudely triangular. The idea originated with Julius Cæsar, who estimated the entire circuit at 2000 miles. But the actual extent of the coast-line, measuring inlets and estuaries up to the termination of their broader parts, is upwards of 3000 miles, distributed as follows:

East Coast-from the South Foreland in Kent, to Duncansby Head in Caithness,
North Coast-from Duncansby Head to Cape Wrath in Sutherlandshire,
West Coast-from Cape Wrath to the Land's End in Cornwall,
South Coast-from the Land's End to the South Foreland,

Miles.

1010

108

1546

448

3112

England has an area of 50,922 square miles; Wales, 7398; and Scotland, inclusive of islands, 30,685-making a total of 89,005 square miles. The respective proportions have been ingeniously illustrated by the Registrar-general. Adopting the figure of a perfect square, the area of England is equal to one of 226 miles to the side; Wales, to one of 86 miles; Scotland, to one of 177 miles; and the whole of Great Britain, to a square of 299 miles to the side. Or adopting the figure of a circle, the area of England is equal to one with a radius of 127 miles; Wales, to one of 49 miles; Scotland, to one of 100 miles; and the whole of Great Britain, to a circle with a radius of 169 miles. The surface varies in its level from below high-water mark in the fens of Lincolnshire, to the height of 4406 feet above the sea, in Ben Nevis, Inverness-shire.

Ireland, smaller, less important, and more compact, lies to the west of Great Britain, from which it is separated by the Irish Sea, and the straits by which that confined expanse communicates with the ocean, St George's Channel in the south, and the North Channel in the opposite direction. The two islands make their closest approach at the outlet of the northern channel, where the shores on either hand are within thirteen miles of each other, at Fairhead, in the county of Antrim, and the Mull of Cantire in Scotland.