Individuality of the continent.
It has justly become a commonplace of geography to describe Europe as a
mere peninsula of Asia, but while it is necessary to bear this in mind
in some aspects of the geography of the continent, more particularly in
relation to the climate, the individuality of the continent is
established in the clearest manner by the course of history and the
resultant distribution of population. The earliest mention of Europe is
in the Homeric _Hymn to Apollo_, but there Europe is not the name of a
continent, but is opposed to the Peloponnesus and the islands of the
Aegean. The distinction between Europe and Asia is found, however, in
Aeschylus in the 5th century B.C., but there seems to be little doubt
that this opposition was learnt by the Greeks from some Asiatic people.
On Assyrian monuments the contrast between _asu_, "(the land of) the
rising sun," and _ereb_ or _irib_, "(the land of) darkness" or "the
setting sun," is frequent, and these names were probably passed on by
the Phoenicians to the Greeks, and gave rise to the names of Asia and
Europe. Where the names originated the geographical distinction was
clearly marked by the intervention of the sea, and this intervention
marked equally clearly the distinction between Europe and Libya
(Africa). As the knowledge of the world extended, the difficulty, which
still exists, of fixing the boundary between Europe and Asia where there
is land connexion, caused uncertainty in the application of the two
names, but never obscured the necessity for recognizing the distinction.
Even in the 3rd century B.C. Europe was regarded by Eratosthenes as
including all that was then known of northern Asia. But the character of
the physical features and climate finally determined the fact that what
we know as Europe came to be occupied by more or less populous countries
in intimate relation with one another, but separated on the east by
unpeopled or very sparsely peopled areas from the countries of Asia, and
the boundary between the two continents has long been recognized as
running somewhere through this area. Within the limits thus marked out
on the east and on other sides by the sea "the climatic conditions are
such that inhabitants are capable of and require a civilization of
essentially the same type, based upon the cultivation of our European
grains."[1] Those inhabitants have had a common history in a greater
measure than those of any other continent, and hence are more thoroughly
conscious of their dissimilarities from, than of their consanguinity
with, the peoples of the east and the south.
Boundaries.
On the subject of the boundaries of Europe there is still divergence of
opinion. While some authorities take the line of the Caucasus as the
boundary in the south-east, others take the line of the Manych
depression, between the upper end of the Sea of Azov and the Caspian
Sea, nearly parallel to the Caucasus. Various limits are assigned to the
continent on the east. Officially the crest of the Caucasus and that of
the Urals are regarded in Russia as the boundaries between Europe and
Asia on the south-east and east respectively,[2] although in neither
case does the boundary correspond with the great administrative
divisions, and in the Urals it is impossible to mark out any continuous
crest. Reclus, without attempting to assign any precise position to the
boundary line between the two continents, makes it run through the
relatively low and partly depressed area north of the Caucasus and east
of the Urals. The Manych depression, marking the lowest line of this
area to the north of the Caucasus, has been taken as the boundary of
Europe on the south-east by Wagner in his edition of Guthe's _Lehrbuch
der Geographie_,[3] and the same limit is adopted in Kirchhoff's
_Laenderkunde des Erdteils Europa_[4] and Stanford's _Compendium of
Geography and Travel_. In favour of this limit it appears that much
weight ought to be given to the consideration put forward by Wagner,
that from time immemorial the valleys on both sides of the Caucasus have
formed a refuge for Asiatic peoples, especially when it is borne in mind
that this contention is reinforced by the circumstance that the steppes
to the north of the Caucasus must interpose a belt of almost unpeopled
territory between the more condensed populations belonging undoubtedly
to Asia and Europe respectively. Continuity of population would be an
argument in favour of assigning the whole of the Urals to Europe, but
here the absence of any break in such continuity on the east side makes
it more difficult to fix any boundary line outside of that system. Hence
on this side it is perhaps reasonable to attach greater importance to
the fact that the Urals form a boundary not only orographically, but to
some extent also in respect of climate and vegetation,[5] and on that
account to take a line following the crest of the different sections of
that system as the eastern limit between the two continents.[6]
Obviously, however, any eventual agreement among geographers on this
head must be more or less arbitrary and conventional. In any case it
must be borne in mind that, whatever conventional boundary be adopted,
the use of the name Europe as so limited must be confined to statements
of extent or implying extent. The facts as to climate, fauna and flora
have no relation to any such arbitrary boundary, and all statistical
statements referring to the countries of Europe must include the part of
Russia beyond the Urals up to the frontier of Siberia. In such
statements, however, in the present article the whole of the lieutenancy
of the Caucasus will be left out of account. As to extent it is
provisionally advisable to give the area of the continent within
different limits.
Extent.
The following calculations in English square miles (round numbers) of
the area of Europe, within different limits, are given in Behm and
Wagner's _Bevoelkerung der Erde_, No. viii. (Gotha, Justus Perthes,
1891), p. 53:--Europe, within the narrowest physical limits (to the
crest of the Urals and the Manych depression, and including the Sea of
Azov, but excluding the Caspian Steppe, Iceland, Novaya Zemlya,
Spitsbergen and Bear Island) 3,570,000 sq. m. The same, with the
addition of the Caspian Steppe up to the Ural river and the Caspian Sea,
3,687,750 sq. m. The same, with the addition of the area between the
Manych depression and the Caucasus, 3,790,500 sq. m. The same, with the
addition of territories east of the Ural Mountains, the portion of the
Caspian Steppe east of the Ural river as far as the Emba, and the
southern slopes of the Caucasus, 3,988,500 sq. m. The same, with
Iceland, Novaya Zemlya, Spitsbergen and Bear Island, 4,093,000 sq. m. In
all these calculations the islands in the Sea of Marmora, the Canary
Islands, Madeira, and even the Azores, are excluded, but all the Greek
islands of the Aegean Sea and the Turkish islands of Thasos, Lemnos,
Samothrace, Imbros, Hagiostrati or Bozbaba, and even Tenedos, are
included.
Extreme points.
The most northern point of the mainland area is Cape Nordkyn in
Norway, 71 deg. 6' N.; its most southern, Cape Tarifa in Spain, in 36 deg. 0'
N.; its most western, Cape da Roca in Portugal, 9 deg. 27' W.; and its
most eastern, a spot near the north end of the Ural Mountains, in 66 deg.
20' E. A line drawn from Cape St Vincent in Portugal to the Ural
Mountains near Ekaterinburg has a length of 3293 m., and finds its
centre in the W. of Russian Poland. From the mouth of the Kara to the
mouth of the Ural river the direct distance is 1600 m., but the
boundary line has a length of 2400 m.
Coastline.
Two of the most striking features in the general conformation of
Europe are the great number of its primary and secondary peninsulas,
and the consequent exceptional development of its coast-line--an
irregularity and development which have been one of the most potent of
the physical factors of its history. The total length of coast-line
was estimated by Reuschle in 1869 at 19,820 m., of which about 3600
were counted as belonging to the Arctic Ocean, 8390 to the Atlantic,
and 7830 to the Black Sea and Mediterranean. This estimate, however,
does not take into account minor indentations. Reclus's estimate,
including the more important indentations, brings the coast-line up to
26,700 m., and that of Strelbitsky up to 47,790 m. (smaller islands
not included), or 1 m. of coast for about 75 sq. m. of area.
Rohrbach[7] calculated the mean distance of all points in the interior
of Europe from the sea at 209 m. as compared with 292 m. in the case
of North America, the continent which ranks next in this respect. It
must be pointed out, however, that such calculations are apt to be
very misleading, inasmuch as the commercial value of the relations
thus determined depends not merely on the existence of natural
harbours or the presence of facilities for the construction of
artificial harbours, but also on the presence of natural facilities
for communication between such harbours and a productive interior.
Changes of coast-line.
The consideration just mentioned gives great significance to the fact
that while the coast-line of Europe is in its general features very
much the same as it was at the beginning of the true historic period,
it has undergone a number of important local changes, some at least of
which are due to causes that are at work over very extensive areas.
These changes may be conveniently classified under four heads: the
formation of deltas by the alluvium of rivers; the increase of the
land-surface due to upheaval; the advance of the sea by reason of its
own erosive activity; and the advance of the sea through the
subsidence of the land. The actual form of the coast, however, is
frequently due to the simultaneous or successive action of several of
the causes--sea and river and subterranean forces helping or resisting
each other. That changes in the coast-line on the shores of the Gulf
of Bothnia have taken place within historical times through elevation
of the land seems now to be generally admitted. The commune of
Hvittisbofjaerd north of Bjorneborg on the Finland side of that gulf
gained about 21/4 sq. m. between 1784 and 1894, an amount greater than
could be accounted for by the most liberal estimates of alluvial
deposit, and the most careful investigation seems to show that on the
Swedish coast of that gulf a rise has taken place in recent years on
the east coast of Sweden from about 57 deg. 20' N. increasing in amount
towards the north up to 62 deg. 20' N., where it reaches an average of
about two-fifths of an inch annually.[8] Our information is naturally
most complete in regard to the Mediterranean coasts, as these were the
best known to the first book-writing nations. There we find that all
the great rivers have been successfully at work--more especially the
Rhone, the Ebro and the Po. The activity of the Rhone, indeed, as a
maker of new land, is astonishing. The tower of St Louis, erected on
the coast in 1737, is now upwards of four miles inland; the city of
Arles is said to be nearly twice as far from the sea as it was in the
Roman period. The present St Gilles was probably a harbour when the
Greeks founded Marseilles, and Aigues Mortes, which took its place in
the middle ages, was no longer on the coast in the time of St Louis
(13th century), but Narbonne continued to be a seaport till the 14th
century. At the mouth of the Herault, according to Fischer,[9] the
coast advances at least two metres or about 7 ft. annually; and it
requires great labour to keep the harbour of Cette from being silted
up. The Po is even more efficient than the Rhone, if the size of its
basin be taken into account. Ravenna, which was at one time an insular
city like Venice, has now a wide stretch of downs partly covered with
pine forest between it and the sea. Aquileia, one of the greatest
seaports of the Mediterranean in the early centuries of the Christian
era, is now 7 m. from the coast, and Adria, which gives its name to
the sea, is 13. The islands on which Venice is built have sunk about 3
ft. since the 16th century: the pavement of the square of St Mark's
has frequently required to be raised, and the boring of a well has
shown that a layer of vegetable remains, indicating a flora identical
with that observed at present on the neighbouring mainland, exists at
a depth of 400 ft. below the alluvial deposits. A little to the south
of Rovigno on the Istrian coast on the opposite side of the Adriatic a
diver found at the depth of about 85 ft. the remains of a town, which
has been identified with the island town of Cissa, of which nothing
had been known after the year 679.[10] At Zara ancient pavements and
mosaics are found below the sea-level, and the district at the mouth
of the Narenta has been changed into a swamp by the advance of the
sea. A process of elevation, on the other hand, is indicated along
nearly all the coasts of Sicily, at the southern end of Sardinia, the
east of Corsica, and perhaps in the neighbourhood of Nice, while the
west coast of Italy from the latitude of Rome to the southern shores
of the Gulf of Salerno has undergone considerable oscillations of
level within historical times. About the time of the settlement of the
Greeks the coast stood at least 20 ft. above the level of the present
day. Depression began in Roman times, though then the land was still
16 ft. higher than now. A more rapid depression began in the middle
ages, so that the sea-level rose from 18 to 20 ft. above the present
zero, and the coast began gradually to rise again at the close of the
15th century.[11] Passing eastward to the Balkan peninsula, we find
considerable changes on the coast-line of Greece; but as they are only
repetitions on a smaller scale of the phenomena already described, it
is sufficient to indicate the Gulf of Arta and the mouth of the
Spercheios as two of the more important localities. The latter
especially is interesting to the historian as well as to the
geologist, as the river has greatly altered the physical features of
one of the world's most famous scenes--the battlefield of Thermopylae.
If we proceed to the Atlantic seaboard we observe, as we might expect,
great modifications in the embouchures of the Garonne and the Loire,
but by far the most remarkable variations of sea and land have taken
place in the region extending from the south of Belgium in the
neighbourhood of the Straits of Dover to the mouth of the Elbe and the
west coast of Schleswig-Holstein. Here there has been a prolonged
struggle between man and nature, in which on the whole nature has
hitherto had the best of the battle. While, as is well known, much
land below sea-level in the Low Countries has been protected against
the sea by dikes and reclaimed, and the coast-line has been, on the
whole, advanced between the Elbe and the Eider,[12] there has been a
great loss of land in the interior of Holland since the beginning of
the Christian era, and on the balance a large loss of land north of
the Eider since the first half of the 13th century.[13] In the 1st
century A.D. the Zuider Zee appears to have been represented only by a
comparatively small inland lake, the dimensions of which were
increased by different inroads of the sea, the last and greatest of
which occurred in 1395. Among the local changes of European
significance within this area may be mentioned the silting up towards
the end of the 15th century of the channel known as the Zwin running
north-eastwards from Bruges, which through that cause lost its
shipping and in the end all its former renown as a seat of commerce.
The Baltic shores of Germany display the same phenomena of local gain
and loss. In the western section inroads of the sea have been
extensive: the island of Ruegen would no longer serve for the
disembarkation of an army like that of Gustavus Adolphus; Wollin and
Usedom are growing gradually less; large stretches of the mainland are
fringed with submerged forests; and at intervals the sites of
well-known villages are occupied by the sea. Towards the east the
great rivers are successfully working in the opposite direction. In
the Gulf of Danzig the alluvial deposits of the Vistula cover an area
of 615 sq. m.; in the 13th century the knights of Marienburg enclosed
with dikes about 350 sq. m.; and an area of about 70 sq. m. was added
in the course of the 14th. The Memel is silting up the Kurisches Haff,
which, like the Frisches Haff, is separated from the open sea by a
line of dunes comparable with those of the Landes in France. The
so-called strand or coast-lines at various altitudes round the
Scandinavian peninsula, though belonging for the most part to glacial
times, speak also of relative changes of level in the post-glacial
period.
[Illustration: Map of Europe.]
Volcanoes and earthquakes.
The changes briefly indicated above take place so gradually for the
most part that it requires careful observation and comparison of data
to establish their reality. It is very different with those changes
which we usually ascribe to volcanic agency. Besides the great
outlying "hearth" of Iceland, there are four centres of volcanic
activity in Europe--all of them, however, situated in the
Mediterranean. Vesuvius on the western coast of Italy, Etna in the
island of Sicily, and Stromboli in the Lipari group, have been
familiarly known from the earliest historic times; but the fourth has
only attracted particular attention since the 18th century. It lies in
the Archipelago, on the southern edge of the Cyclades, near the little
group of islets called Santorin. The region was evidently highly
volcanic at an earlier period, for Milo, one of the nearest of the
islands, is simply a ruined crater still presenting smoking solfataras
and other traces of former activity. The devastations produced by the
eruptions of the European volcanoes are usually confined within very
narrow limits; and it is only at long intervals that any part of the
continent is visited by a really formidable earthquake. The only part
of Europe, however, for which there are no recorded earthquakes is
central and northern Russia; and the Alps and Carpathians, especially
the intra-Carpathian area of depression, Greece, Italy, especially
Calabria and the adjoining part of Sicily, the Sierra Nevada and the
Pyrenees, the Lisbon district and the rift valley of the upper Rhine
(between the Vosges and the Black Forest) are all regions specially
liable to earthquake shocks and occasionally to shocks of considerable
intensity. One well-marked seismic line extends along the south side
of the Alps from Lake Garda by Udine and Goerz to Fiume, and another
forms a curve convex towards the south-east passing first through
Calabria, then through the north-east of Sicily to the south of the
Peloritan Mountains.[14] Of all European earthquakes in modern times,
the most destructive are that of Lisbon in 1755, and that of Calabria
in 1783; the devastation produced by the former has become a classical
instance of such disasters in popular literature, and by the latter
100,000 people are said to have lost their lives. Calabria again
suffered severely in 1865, 1870, 1894, 1905 and 1908.
Relief.
If the European mountains are arranged according to their greatest
elevations, they rank as follows:--(1) the Swiss Alps, with their
highest peaks above 15,000 ft.; (2) the Sierra Nevada, the Pyrenees,
and Etna, about 11,000 ft.; (3) the Apennines, the Corsican Mountains,
the Carpathians, the Balkans, and the Despoto Dagh, from 8000 to 9000;
(4) the Guadarrama, the Scandinavian Alps, the Dinaric Alps, the Greek
Mountains, and the Cevennes, between 6000 and 8000; (5) the mountains
of Auvergne, the Jura, the Riesengebirge, the mountains of Sardinia,
Majorca, Minorca, and the Crimea, the Black Forest, the Vosges, and
the Scottish Highlands, from 4000 to 6000.
The following estimates are based on those contained in the fifth
edition, by Dr Hermann Wagner, of Guthe's _Lehrbuch der Geographie_.
In the original the figures are given in German sq. m. and in sq.
kilometres in round numbers, and the equivalents here given in English
sq. m. are similarly treated:--
Sq. m.
The great European plain in its widest sense 2,660,000
The same exclusive of inland seas 2,300,000
The same exclusive of the Scandinavian and
British lowlands 2,125,000
All other European lowlands 385,000
_The Hungarian plain_ 38,000
_The Po plain_ 21,000
The Scandinavian highlands 190,000
The Ural Mountains 127,000
The Alps 85,000
The Carpathians 72,000
The Apennines 42,500
The Pyrenees 21,500
Several estimates have been made of the average elevation of the
continent, but it is enough to give here the main results. In the
following list, where a conversion from metres into feet has been
necessary, the nearest multiple of 5 ft. has been given:--Humboldt,
675 ft.; Leipoldt,[15] 975 ft.; De Lapparent,[16] 960 ft.; Murray,[17]
939 ft.; Supan,[18] 950 ft.; von Tillo,[19] 1040 ft.; Heiderich,[20]
1230 ft.; Penck,[21] 1085 ft. The exceptionally high estimate of
Heiderich is due to the fact that by him Transcaucasia and the islands
of Novaya Zemlya, Spitsbergen and Iceland are reckoned as included in
Europe.
Arrangement of the highlands.
Of more geographical significance than these estimates are the facts
with regard to the arrangement of the highlands of the continent. It
is indeed this arrangement combined with the form of the coast-line
which has indirectly given to Europe its individuality. Three points
have to be noted under this head:--(1) the fact that the highlands of
Europe are so distributed as to allow of the penetration of westerly
winds far to the east; (2) the fact that the principal series of
highlands has a direction from east to west, Europe in this point
resembling Asia but differing from North America; and (3) that in
Europe the mountain systems belonging to the series of highlands
referred to not only have more or less well-marked breaks between
them, but are themselves so notched by passes and cut by transverse
valleys as to present great facilities for crossing in proportion to
their average altitude. The first and second of these points have
special importance with reference to the climate and will accordingly
be considered more fully under that head. The second is also of
importance with reference to the means of communication, to which the
third also refers, and detailed consideration of these points in that
relation will be reserved for that heading. Here, however, it may be
noted that in Europe the distribution of the natural resources for the
maintenance of the inhabitants is such that, if we leave out of
account Russia, which is almost entirely outside of the series of
highlands running east and west, the population north of the mountains
is roughly about 50% greater than that south of the mountains, whereas
in Asia the population north of the east and west highland barrier is
utterly insignificant as compared with that to the south.
+--------------------+-------------------------+-------------+
| | Length in English Miles.|Area of Basin|
| | | in sq. m. |
| Name of River. +------------+------------+-------------+
| |Strelbitsky.| Other | Strelbitsky.|
| | |Authorities.| |
+--------------------+------------+------------+-------------+
| Volga | 1977[22] | 2107[23] | 563,300 |
| Danube | 1644 | .. | 315,435 |
| Ural | 1446 | 1477[23] | 96,350 |
| Dnieper (Dnyepr) | 1064 | 1328[23] | 203,460 |
| Kama | 984 | 1115[23] | 202,615 |
| Don (Russia) | 980 | 1123[23] | 166,125 |
| Pechora | 915 | 1024[23] | 127,225 |
| Rhine | 709 | .. | 63,265 |
| Oka | 706 | 914[23] | 93,205 |
| Dniester (Dnyestr) | 646 | 835[23] | 29,675 |
| Elbe | 612 | .. | 55,340 |
| Vistula | 596 | 646[23] | 73,905 |
| Vyatka | 596 | 680[23] | 50,555 |
| Tagus | 566 | .. | 31,865[24]|
| Theiss (Tisza) | 550 | .. | 59,350 |
| Loire | 543 | .. | 46,755 |
| Save | 535 | .. | 37,595 |
| Meuse | 530 | .. | 12,740 |
| Mezen | 496 | 507[23] | 30,410 |
| Donets | 487 | 613[23] | 37,890 |
| Douro | 485 | .. | 36,705 |
| Duena (S. Dvina) | 470 | 576[23] | 32,975 |
| Ebro | 470 | .. | 38,580[24]|
| Rhone | 447 | .. | 38,180 |
| Desna | 438 | 590[23] | 33,535 |
| Niemen (Nyeman) | 437 | 537[23] | 34,965 |
| Drave | 434 | .. | 15,745 |
| Bug (Southern) | 428 | 477[23] | 26,225 |
| Seine | 425 | .. | 30,030 |
| Oder | 424 | .. | 17,150 |
| Kuban | 405 | 509[23] | 21,490 |
| Khoper | 387 | 563[23] | 23,120 |
| Maros | 390 | .. | 16,975 |
| Pripet | 378 | 404[23] | 46,805 |
| Guadalquivir | 374 | .. | 21,580[24]|
| Pruth (Prut[)u] | 368 | 503[23] | 10,330 |
| Northern Dvina | 358 | 447[23] | 141,075 |
| Weser-Werra | 355 | .. | 19,925 |
| Po | 354 | .. | 28,920[24]|
| Garonne-Gironde | 342 | .. | 32,745 |
| Vetluga | 328 | 464[23] | 14,325 |
| Pinega | 328 | 407[23] | 17,425 |
| Glommen | 326 | 352[25] | 15,930 |
| Bug (Western) | 318 | 450[23] | 22,460 |
| Guadiana | 316 | .. | 25,300[24]|
| Aluta (Alt, Oltu) | 308 | .. | 9,095 |
| Mosel | 300 | .. | 10,950 |
| Main | 300 | .. | 10,600 |
| Maritsa | 272 | .. | 20,790 |
| Jucar | 270 | .. | 7,620[24]|
| Mologa | 268 | 338[23] | 15,005 |
| Tornea | 268 | .. | 13,045 |
| Inn | 268 | .. | 9,825 |
| Saone | 268 | .. | 8,295 |
| Moldau | 255 | 267[25] | 10,860 |
| Moksha | 249 | 371[23] | 19,090 |
| Ljusna | 243 | .. | 7,700 |
| Mur | 242 | .. | 5,200 |
| Morava, Servian | 235 | .. | 15,715 |
| Klar | 224 | .. | 4,520 |
| Voronezh | 218 | 305[23] | 7,760 |
| Berezina | 218 | 285[23] | 9,295 |
| Saale | 215 | .. | 8,970 |
| Onega | 212 | 245[23] | 22,910 |
| Vag (Waag) | 212 | .. | 6,245 |
| Dema | 209 | 275[23] | 4,830 |
| San | 203 | 444[23] | 6,135 |
| Moskva | 189 | 305[23] | 5,910 |
| Western Manych | 176 | 295[23] | 37,820 |
| Klyazma | 159 | 394[23] | 15,200 |
+--------------------+------------+------------+-------------+
From the table given on p. 909 (col. 1) it will be seen that the most
extensive of the highland areas of Europe is that of Scandinavia,
which has a general trend from south-south-west to north-north-east,
and is completely detached by seas and plains from the highland area
to the south. There are other completely detached highland areas in
Iceland, the British Isles, the Ural Mountains, the small Yaila range
in the south of the Crimea, and the Mediterranean islands. The
connected series of highlands is that which extends from the Iberian
peninsula to the Black Sea stretching in the middle of Germany
northwards to about 52 deg. N. In the Iberian peninsula we have the most
marked example of the tableland form in Europe, and these tablelands
are bounded on the north by the Cantabrian Mountains, which descend to
the sea, and the Pyrenees, which, except at their extremities, cut off
the Iberian peninsula from the adjoining country more extensively than
any other chain in the continent. Between the foot-hills of the
Pyrenees, however, and those of the central plateau of France the
ground sinks in the Passage of Naurouse or Gap of Carcassonne to a
well-marked gap establishing easy communication between the valley of
the Garonne and the lower part of that of the Rhone. The highlands in
the north spread northwards and then north-eastwards till they join
the Vosges, but sink in elevation towards the north-east so as to
allow of several easy crossings. East of the Vosges the Rhine valley
forms an important trough running north and south through the
highlands of western Germany. To the south of the Vosges again
undulating country of less than 1500 ft. in elevation, the well-known
Burgundy Gate or Gap of Belfort, constitutes a well-marked break
between those mountains and the Jura, and establishes easy
communication between the Rhine and the Saone-Rhone valleys. The
latter valley divides in the clearest manner the highlands of central
France from both the Alps and the Jura, while between these last two
systems there lies the wedge of the Swiss midlands contracting
south-westwards to a narrow but important gap at the outlet of the
Lake of Geneva. Between the Alps and the mountains of the Italian and
Balkan peninsulas the orographical lines of demarcation are less
distinct, but on the north the valley of the Danube mostly forms a
wide separation between the Alps and the mountains of the Balkan
peninsula on the south and the highlands of Bohemia and Moravia, the
Carpathians and the Transylvanian Alps on the north. The valleys of
the Eger and the Elbe form distinct breaks in the environment of
Bohemia, and the Sudetes on the north-east of Bohemia and Moravia are
even more clearly divided from the Carpathians by the valley of the
upper Oder, the Moravian Gate, as it is called, which forms the
natural line of communication between the south-east of Prussia and
Vienna.
Rivers.
An estimate has been made by Strelbitsky of the length and of the area
of the basins of all the principal rivers of Europe. In the table on
p. 909 all the estimates given without any special authority are based
on Strelbitsky's figures, but it should be mentioned that the
estimates of length made by him evidently do not take into account
minor windings, and are therefore generally less than those given by
others. The authorities are separately cited for the originals of all
other figures given in the table.[26]
The observations on the temperature of European rivers have been
collected and discussed by Dr Adolf E. Forster.[27] He finds that the
dominant factor in determining that temperature is the temperature of
the air above, but that rivers are divisible into four groups with
respect to the relation between these temperatures at different
seasons of the year. These groups are rivers flowing from glaciers, in
which the temperature is warmer than the air in winter, colder in
summer; rivers flowing from lakes, characterized by peculiarly high
winter temperatures, in consequence of which the mean temperature for
the year is always above that of the air; rivers flowing from springs,
which, at least near their source, are more rapidly cooled by low than
warmed by high air temperatures; and rivers of the plains, which have
a higher mean temperature than the air in all months of the year.
In various parts of Europe, more particularly in calcareous regions,
such as the Jura, the Causses in the south-east of France, and the
Karst in the north-west of the Balkan peninsula, there are numerous
subterranean or partly subterranean rivers. Several of the more
important rivers are of very irregular flow, and some are subject to
really formidable floods. This is particularly the case with rivers a
large part of whose basin is made up of crystalline or other
impervious rocks with steep slopes, like those of the Loire in France
and the Ebro in Spain. The Danube and its tributaries, the great
rivers of Germany, above all eastern Germany, and those of Italy, are
also notorious for their inundations. In southern Europe, where the
summers are nearly rainless, most of the rivers disappear altogether
in that season.
+--------------------------------+--------+---------+----------+-------+-----------+
| | Height | | | | Volume. |
| Name of Lake and Country. | above | Area. | Greatest | Mean | Millions |
| | Sea. | | Depth. | Depth.|of Cub. Ft.|
|--------------------------------+--------+---------+----------+-------+-----------+ |
| | Ft. | Sq. m. | Ft. | Ft. | |
| Ladoga, Russia | 15 | 7004 | 730 | .. | .. |
| Onega, " | 115 | 3765 |About 1200| .. | .. |
| Vener, Sweden | 145 | 2149 | 280 | .. | .. |
| Chudskoye or Peipus, Russia | 100 | 1357[28]| 90 | .. | .. |
| Vetter, Sweden | 290 | 733 | 415 | .. | .. |
| Saima, Russia | 255 | 680 | 185 | .. | .. |
| Paejaene, " | 255 | 608 | .. | .. | .. |
| Enare, " | 490 | 549 | .. | .. | .. |
| Segozero," | 481 | 140 | .. | .. | .. |
| Maelar, Sweden | 1.6 | 449 | 170 | .. | .. |
| Byelo-Ozero, Russia | 400 | 434 | 35 | .. | .. |
| Pielis, Russia | 305 | 422 | .. | .. | .. |
| Topozero, Russia | .. | 411 | .. | .. | .. |
| Ulea, " | 375 | 380 | 60 | .. | .. |
| Ilmen, " | 107 | 358 | .. | .. | .. |
| Vigozero, " | .. | 332 | .. | .. | .. |
| Imandra, " | .. | 329 | .. | .. | .. |
| Balaton, Hungary | 350 | 266 | 13 | .. | .. |
| Geneva, France and Switzerland | 1220 | 225 | 1015 | 500 | 3,140,000 |
| Kovdozero, Russia | .. | 225 | .. | .. | .. |
| Constance, Germany and | | | | | |
| Switzerland | 1295 | 208 | 825 | 295 | 1,711,000 |
| Hjelmar, Sweden | 79 | 187 | 60 | .. | .. |
| Neagh, Ireland | 48 | 153 | 113 | .. | .. |
| Kubinskoye, Russia | .. | 152 | .. | .. | .. |
| Mjoesen, Norway | 395 | 152 | 1485 | .. | .. |
| Garda, Italy and Austria | 215 | 143 | 1135 | 445 | 1,757,000 |
| Torne-traesk, Sweden | 1140 | 139 | .. | .. | .. |
| Neusiedler-see, Hungary | 370 | 137 | 13 | .. | .. |
| Scutari, Turkey | 20 |About 130| 33 | 121/2 | 45,900 |
| Siljan, Sweden | .. | 123 | .. | .. | .. |
| Virzjaervi, Russia | 115 | 107 | 24 | .. | .. |
| Seliger, " | 825 | 100 | 105 | .. | .. |
| Stor Afvan, Sweden | 1370 | 92 | 925 | .. | .. |
| Yalpukh, Russia | .. | 89 | .. | .. | .. |
| Neuchatel, Switzerland | 1415 | 85 | 500 | 210 | 500,000 |
| Ylikitkakaervi, Russia | 680 | 85 | 30 | .. | .. |
| Maggiore, Italy and Switzerland| 645 | 82 | 1220 | 575 | 1,316,000 |
| Corrib, Ireland | 30 | 71 | 152 | .. | .. |
| Como, Italy | 655 | 56 | 1360 | .. | .. |
+--------------------------------+--------+---------+----------+-------+-----------+
Lakes and marshes.
For many European lakes, especially the smaller ones, estimates have
been made of the mean depth and the volume. A list of all the European
lakes for which the altitude, extent, and greatest depth could be
ascertained, compiled by Dr K. Peucker, is published in the _Geog.
Zeitschrift_ (1896), pp. 606-616, where estimates of the mean depth
and the volume are also given where procurable. The table given above,
comprising only the larger lakes, is mainly based on this list, where
the original authorities are mentioned. The figures entered in the
table not taken from this list are after Strelbitsky, the _Geog.
Universelle_ of V. de St Martin, or, in the case of Swedish lakes,
from the official handbook of Sweden.[29]
The Alpine lakes break up into a southern and northern
subdivision--the former consisting of the Lago Maggiore, and the lakes
of Lugano and Como, Lago d'Iseo, and Lago di Garda, all connected by
affluents with the system of the Po; and the latter the Lake of Geneva
threaded by the Rhone, Lakes Constance, Zuerich, Neuchatel, Biel and
other Swiss lakes belonging to the basin of the Rhine, and a few of
minor importance belonging to the Danube. The north Russian lakes,
Ladoga, Onega, &c., are mainly noticeable as the largest members of
what in some respects is the most remarkable system of lakes in the
continent--the Finno-Russian, which consists of an almost countless
number of comparatively small irregular basins formed in the surface
of a granitic plateau. In Finland proper they occupy no less than a
twelfth of the total area.
A few of the number are very shallow. The Neusiedler See, for example
(the Peiso Lacus of the Latins and Fertoe-tava of the Hungarians),
completely dried up in 1693, 1738 and 1864, and left its bed covered
for the most part with a deposit of salt.[30] Lakes Copais in Boeotia
and Fucino Celano in Italy have been entirely turned into dry land.
The progress of agriculture has greatly diminished the extent of marsh
land in Europe. The Minsk marshes in Russia form the largest area of
this character still left, and on these large encroachments are
gradually being made. Extensive marshes in northern Italy have been
completely drained. The partial draining of the Pomptine marshes in
Italy made Pope Pius VII. famous in the 18th century, and further
reclamation works are still in progress there and elsewhere in the
same country. (G. G. C.)
Geology.
The geological history of Europe[31] is, to a large extent, a history
of the formation and destruction of successive mountain chains. Four
times a great mountain range has been raised across the area which now
is Europe. Three times the mountain range has given way; portions have
sunk beneath the sea, and have been covered by more recent sediments,
while other portions remained standing and now rise as isolated blocks
above the later beds which surround them. The last of the mountain
ranges still stands, and is known under the names of the Alps, the
Carpathians, the Balkans, the Caucasus, &c., but the work of
destruction has already begun, and gaps have been formed by the
collapse of parts of the chain. The Carpathians were once continuous
with the Alps, and the Caucasus was probably connected with the
Balkans across the site of the Black Sea.
These mountain chains were not raised by direct uplift. They consist
of crumpled and folded strata, and are, in fact, wrinkles in the
earth's outer crust, formed by lateral compression, like the puckers
which appear in a tablecloth when we push it forward against a book or
other heavy object lying upon it. How the lateral or tangential
pressures originated is still matter of controversy, but the usually
accepted explanation is as follows. The interior of the earth in
cooling contracts more rapidly than the exterior, and, if no other
change took place, the outer crust would be left as a hollow sphere
without any internal support. But the materials of which it is
composed are not strong enough to bear its enormous weight, and, like
an arch which is too weak in its abutments, it collapses upon the
interior core. Where the crust is rigid it fractures, as an ordinary
arch would fracture; and some portions fall inward, while other parts
may even be wedged a little outward. Where, on the other hand, the
crust is made of softer rock, it crumples and folds, and a mountain
chain is produced. Such a mountain chain, for want of a better term,
is called a folded mountain chain. The folding is most intense where a
flexible portion of the crust lies next to a more rigid part. Where
the folding has occurred, the rocks which were once comparatively soft
become hard and rigid, and the next series of wrinkles will usually be
formed beyond the limits of the old one. This is what has happened in
the European area.
The oldest mountain chain lay in the extreme north-west of Europe, and
its relics are seen in the outer Hebrides, the Lofoten Islands and the
north of Norway. The rocks of this ancient chain have since been
converted into gneiss, and they were folded and denuded before the
deposition of the oldest known fossiliferous sediments. The mountain
system must therefore have been formed in Pre-Cambrian times, and it
has been called by Marcel Bertrand the Huronian chain. It is probable
that a great land-mass lay towards the north-west; but in the sea
which certainly existed south-east of the chain, the Cambrian,
Ordovician and Silurian beds were deposited. In Russia and South
Sweden these beds still lie flat and undisturbed; but in Norway,
Scotland, the Lake District, North Wales and the north of Ireland they
were crushed against the north-western continent and were not only
intensely folded but were pushed forward over the old rocks of the
Huronian chain. Thus was formed the Caledonian mountain system of Ed.
Suess, in which the folds run from south-west to north-east. It was
raised at the close of the Silurian period.
Then followed, in northern Europe, a continental period. By the
elevation of the Caledonian chain the northern land-mass had grown
southward and now extended as far as the Bristol Channel. Upon it the
Old Red Sandstone was laid down in inland seas or lakes, while farther
south contemporaneous deposits were formed in the open sea.
During the earlier part of the Carboniferous period the sea spread
over the southern shores of the northern continent; but later the
whole area again became land and the Coal Measures of northern Europe
were laid down. Towards the close of the Carboniferous period the
third great mountain chain was formed. It lay to the south of the
Caledonian chain, and its northern margin stretched from the south of
Ireland through South Wales, the north of France and the south of
Belgium, and was continued round the Harz and the ancient rocks of
Bohemia, and possibly into the south of Russia. It is along this
northern margin, where the folded beds have been thrust over the rocks
which lay to the north, that the coalfields of Dover and of Belgium
occur. The general direction of the folds is approximately from west
to east; but the chain consisted of two arcs, the western of which is
called by Suess the Armorican chain and the eastern the Variscian. The
two arcs together, which were undoubtedly formed at the same period,
have been named by Bertrand the Hercynian chain. Everywhere the chief
folding seems to have occurred before the deposition of the highest
beds of the Upper Carboniferous, which lie unconformably upon the
folded older beds. The Hercynian chain appears to have been of
considerable breadth, at least in western Europe, for the Palaeozoic
rocks of Spain and Portugal are thrown into folds which have the same
general direction and which were formed at approximately the same
period. In eastern Europe the evidence is less complete, because the
Hercynian folds are buried beneath more recent deposits and have in
some cases been masked by the superposition of a later series of
folds.
The formation of this Carboniferous range was followed in northern
Europe by a second continental period somewhat similar to that of the
Old Red Sandstone, but the continent extended still farther to the
south. The Permian and Triassic deposits of England and Germany were
laid down in inland seas or upon the surface of the land itself. But
southern Europe was covered by the open sea, and here, accordingly,
the contemporaneous deposits were marine.
The Jurassic and Cretaceous periods were free from any violent folding
or mountain building, and the sea again spread over a large part of
the northern continent. There were indeed several oscillations, but in
general the greater part of southern and central Europe lay beneath
the waters of the ocean. Some of the fragments of the Hercynian chain
still rose as islands above the waves, and at certain periods there
seems to have been a more or less complete barrier between the waters
which covered northern Europe and those which lay over the
Mediterranean region. Thus, while the estuarine deposits of the Upper
Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous were laid down in England and Germany,
the purely marine Tithonian formation, with its peculiar fauna, was
deposited in the south; and while the Chalk was formed in northern
Europe, the Hippurite limestone was laid down in the south.
The Tertiary period saw fundamental changes in the geography of
Europe. The formation of the great mountain ranges of the south, the
Alpine system of Suess, perhaps began at an earlier date, but it was
in the Eocene and Miocene periods that the chief part of the elevation
took place. Arms of the sea extended up the valley of the Rhone and
around the northern margin of the Alps, and also spread over the
plains of Hungary and of southern Russia. Towards the middle of the
Miocene period some of these arms were completely cut off from the
ocean and large deposits of salt were formed, as at Wieliczka. At a
later period south-eastern Europe was covered by a series of extensive
lagoons, and the waters of these lagoons gradually became brackish,
and then fresh, before the area was finally converted into dry land.
Great changes also took place in the Mediterranean region. The Black
Sea, the Aegean, the Adriatic and the Tyrrhenian Sea were all formed
at various times during the Tertiary period, and the depression of
these areas seems to be closely connected with the elevation of the
neighbouring mountain chains.
Exactly what was happening in northern Europe during these great
changes in the south it is not easy to say. The basaltic flows of the
north of Ireland, the western islands of Scotland, the Faeroe Islands
and Iceland are mere fragments of former extensive plateaus. No sign
of marine Tertiary deposits of earlier age than Pliocene has been
found in this northern part of Europe, and on the other hand plant
remains are abundant in the sands and clays interbedded with the
basalts. It is probable, therefore, that in Eocene times a great
land-mass lay to the north-west of Europe, over which the basalt lavas
flowed, and that the formation of this part of the Atlantic and
perhaps of the North Sea did not take place until the Miocene period.
At a later date the climate, for some reason which has not yet been
fully explained, grew colder over the whole of Europe, and the
northern part was covered by a great ice-sheet which extended
southward nearly as far as lat. 50 deg. N., and has left its marks over
the whole of the northern part of the continent. With the final
melting and disappearance of the ice-sheet, the topography of Europe
assumed nearly its present form, and man came upon the scene. Minor
changes, such as the separation of Great Britain from the continent,
may have occurred at a later date; but since the Glacial period there
have, apparently, been no fundamental modifications in the
configuration of Europe.
The elevation of each of the great mountain systems already described
was accompanied by extensive eruptions of volcanic rocks, and the
sequence appears to have been similar in every case. The volcanoes of
the Mediterranean are the last survivors of the great eruptions which
accompanied the elevation of the Alpine mountain system. (P. La.)
Winds.
In western Europe by far the most prevalent wind is the S.W. or W.S.W.
It represents 25% of the annual total; while the N. is only 6%, the
N.E. 8, the E. 9, the S. 13, the W. 17 and the N.W. 11. Of the summer
total it represents 22%, while the N. is 9, N.E. 8, E. 7, S.E. 7, W.
21 and N.W. 17. In south-eastern Europe, on the other hand, the
prevailing winds are from the N. and E.--the E. having the
preponderance in winter and autumn.[32] Of local winds the most
remarkable are the foehn, in the Alps, distinguished for its warmth and
dryness; the Rotenturm wind of Transylvania, which has similar
characteristics; the bora of the Upper Adriatic, so noticeable for its
violence; the mistral of southern France; the etesian winds of the
Mediterranean; and the sirocco, which proves so destructive to the
southern vegetation. Though it is only at comparatively rare intervals
that the winds attain the development of a hurricane, the destruction
of life and property which they occasion, both by sea and land, is in
the aggregate of no small moment. About six or seven storms from the
west pass over the continent every winter, usually appearing later in
the southern districts, such as Switzerland or the Adriatic, than in
the northern districts, as Scotland and Denmark.
Climate.
The great determining factors of the climate of Europe are these. The
northern borders of the continent are within the Arctic Circle; the
most southern points of the mainland are 131/2 deg. or more north of the
Tropic of Cancer; to the east extends for about 3000 m. the continuous
land surface of Asia; to the west lie the waters of the north
Atlantic, which penetrate in great inland seas to the north and south
of the great European peninsula; the prevailing winds in western
Europe as already stated are more or less south-westerly; and the
arrangement of the highlands is such as to allow of the penetration of
winds with a westerly element in their direction far to the east. The
first two of these factors are not distinguishing influences. They
affect the climate of Europe in the same manner as they do that of any
other land surface in the same latitudes.
The remaining factors, however, are of the highest importance. It is
to them in fact that Europe owes in a very large measure those
physical conditions which are the basis of its recognition as a
separate continent. In estimating the value of those factors one must
bear in mind, first, that the waters of the north Atlantic are
exceptionally warm, especially on the European side of the ocean. The
Gulf Stream carries a large body of warm water northwards to near the
parallel of 40 deg. N., and to the north of the Gulf Stream prevailing
south-westerly winds, especially during the winter months, drift
onwards to the western and northern shores of Europe, even as far east
as Spitsbergen, large bodies of water of an exceptionally high
temperature. Secondly, one must bear in mind that these relatively
high temperatures over the ocean promote evaporation and thus favour
the presence of a relatively large amount of water-vapour in the air
over those parts of the ocean which adjoin the continent; and,
thirdly, that, as the winds are the sole means of carrying
water-vapour from one part of the earth's surface to the other, and
the sole means of carrying heat and cold from the ocean to the land,
the prevailing south-westerly winds are allowed by the superficial
configuration to bring a relatively high rainfall and a relatively
large amount of heat in winter to land farther in the interior than in
any corresponding latitudes. During the summer the winds referred to
have a cooling effect, but not to the same degree as those of winter
tend to raise the temperature. From the point of view just indicated
the only part of the world that is fairly comparable with Europe is
the west of North America; but, as there the outline and superficial
configuration are quite different, the oceanic influences affect only
a narrow strip of seaboard and not any extent of land which could be
regarded as of continental rank. It is owing to these influences that
in the greater part of Europe there is a more or less continuous
population dependent on agriculture. On the east side of Europe,
again, the existence of the continent of Asia has a marked effect on
the climate which also aids in giving to Europe its individual
character. It is owing to that circumstance that the south-east of the
continent, which has temperatures as favourable to agriculture as the
corresponding latitudes of eastern Asia or eastern North America, is
without the copious rains which make those temperatures so valuable,
and hence forms part of the desert that divides the populations of
Europe and Asia.
Precipitation.
On the local distribution of rainfall and temperature, the physical
configuration of the continent has very marked effects. Here as
elsewhere there is a striking difference both in the amount of
rainfall and the temperature on the weather and lee sides of mountains
and even low hills. But with reference to this it should not be
forgotten that water-vapour, heat and cold may be carried farther into
the land by winds blowing in a different direction from that of those
by which they were introduced from the ocean, and, with reference to
rainfall, that the condensation of water-vapour may be brought out by
different winds from those by which the water-vapour was brought to
the area in which it is condensed. Water-vapour that may have been
introduced by a south-westerly wind may be driven against a mountain
side by a northerly or easterly wind, and thus cause rain on the
northern or eastern side of the mountain. Still, any rainfall map of
Europe indicates clearly enough the origin of the water-vapour to
which the rainfall is due. Such a map, taking into account the results
of more detailed investigations of different parts of the continent,
is that of Joseph Reger.[33] This map shows the rainfall or rather
total precipitation in seven tints at intervals of 250 mm. (about 10
in.) up to 1000 mm., and beyond that at intervals of 500 mm. up to
2000 mm. In some parts of the continent the limits of a rainfall of
200 mm. and 600 mm. are also shown. The picture there given is too
complicated for brief description except by saying quite generally
that it shows on the whole a diminution in the total amount of
precipitation from west to east, and that the heaviest precipitation
is indicated on the west or south and most exposed sides of mountains.
The areas of scantiest rainfall lie to the north and north-west of the
Caspian Sea and in the interior of the Kola Peninsula, north-west of
the White Sea. The Stye in the English Lake District, some 2 m. from
and 650 ft. higher than Seathwaite, has long been reputed to be the
station recording the heaviest rainfall in Europe, but it has been
shown to have a rival in Crkvice, a station immediately to the north
of the Bocche di Cattaro on the Dalmatian coast. In the period
1881-1890 the average rainfall at the Stye amounted to 177 in., in
1891-1900 that at Crkvice amounted to about 179 in.[34]
Snowfall.
The amount of the snowfall as distinguished from the rest of the
precipitation is now coming to be recognized as an important
climatological element. So far, however, the only European country in
which a record of the snowfall is kept is Russia, but it may be
pointed out that the scantiness of the winter precipitation and
accordingly of snow in the south-east of Europe almost entirely
prevents the cultivation of winter wheat, which is thus left without
the protective blanket enjoyed in some other parts of the world with
cold winters.
Seasonal distribution of rainfall.
The important subject of the seasonal distribution of the rainfall of
Europe has received attention from Drs A.J. Herbertson, Koeppen and
Supan, and Mr A. Angot. The rainfall of each month in Europe as in the
other continents is shown by Dr A.J. Herbertson in _The Distribution
of Rainfall over the Land_.[35] On plate 19 of the _Atlas of
Meteorology_, by J.G. Bartholomew and A.J. Herbertson, Dr Koeppen has
furnished maps showing the months of maximum rainfall and the seasons
of maximum and minimum rain frequency in different parts of Europe. Mr
A. Angot's work on the subject is published in two papers in the
_Annales du bureau central meteor. de France_, a series of memoirs in
which the rainfall observations of Europe for the thirty years
1861-1890 are recorded and discussed. The first paper (1893, B, pp.
157-194) deals with the Iberian Peninsula, the second (1895, B, pp.
155-192) with western Europe (from about 43 deg. to 58 deg. N. and as far east
as about 19 deg. to 21 deg. E.). Both papers are accompanied by maps showing
by six tints the mean rainfall for each month as well as for the
entire year; and that on western Europe, by maps extending in the west
as far south as Avila, the proportion of the rainfall occurring during
the winter, spring, autumn and summer months respectively. But the
most instructive maps on the subject embracing the whole of Europe are
four maps prepared by Dr Supan[36] to show the percentage of the total
rainfall of the year occurring in spring, summer, autumn and winter
respectively. From the maps it appears that all the southern and
western coasts of Europe have a high proportion of rain in autumn, and
that this is true also of the whole of the Italian peninsula and the
islands of the western half of the Mediterranean, of all the
south-west of the Balkan peninsula, including the Peloponnesus, of the
Saone-Rhone valley and both sides of the Gulf of Bothnia, and that a
high winter rainfall is characteristic of Iceland, the extreme western
coasts of Scotland, Ireland, France and the Iberian peninsula, as well
as of the greater part of the Mediterranean region, but more
particularly the south-east, while in this region, and, again more
particularly in the south-east, there is a great scarcity of summer
rains, which, on the other hand, form the highest percentage in the
interior and eastern parts of the continent. If the year be divided
into a winter and summer half, the area with a predominance of summer
rains begins in the east of Great Britain and extends eastwards,
while the Mediterranean region generally is one of rainy winters and
relatively dry summers. The consequence is that with similar
conditions of soil and superficial configuration the Mediterranean
region is agriculturally much less productive, except where there are
means of irrigation, than the corresponding latitudes in the east of
Asia and the east of North America, where there are corresponding
summer temperatures but an opposite seasonal distribution of rainfall.
Sunshine.
In connexion with the seasonal distribution of rainfall may be noticed
the prevalence of sunshine and cloud. The map accompanying Koenig's
paper on the duration of sunshine[37] shows on the whole, outside of
the Mediterranean peninsulas, an increase from north-west to
south-east (Orkney Islands, 1145 hours = 26% of the total possible;
Sulina, 2411 hours = 55%). In the Mediterranean peninsulas the
duration is everywhere great--greatest, so far as the records go, at
Madrid, 2908 hours = 66%. Dr P. Elfert's[38] map illustrating
cloud-distribution in central Europe embraces the region from Denmark
to the basin of the Arno, and from the confluence of the Loire and
Allier to the mouths of the Danube.
Temperature.
The temperature of the continent has been illustrated by Dr Supan in
an interesting series of maps based on actual observations not reduced
to sea-level, and showing the duration in months of the periods within
which the mean daily temperature lies within certain ranges (at or
below 32 deg. F.; 50 deg.-68 deg. F.; above 68 deg. F.).[39] The first of these maps
strikingly illustrates the effect on temperature of the strong
westerly winds of winter, and, in the south, that of winds from the
Mediterranean Sea as well as the protection afforded to the
Mediterranean countries against cold winds from the north by the
barrier of mountains. South of the parallel of 60 deg. there is no lowland
area in the west of Europe where the average daily temperature is at
or below the freezing point for as much as one month, and in the
Mediterranean region only the higher parts of the mountains besides
the northern part of the Balkan Peninsula are characterized by such
prolonged frosts. On the other hand, on the parallel of 50 deg. N. the
duration of such low temperatures increases at first rapidly,
afterwards more gradually, from west to east. The second map
illustrating the duration of average daily temperatures between 50 deg.
and 68 deg. F., that is, the temperatures favourable to the ordinary
vegetation of the temperate zone, shows that the duration of such
temperatures increases on the whole from south to north, and that by
far the greater part of the continent south of 53 deg. N. has at least six
months within those limits, and south of 58 deg. N. at least five months.
The third of the maps shows that the high temperatures which it
illustrates are prolonged for a month or more throughout the
Mediterranean region, but outside of that region hardly anywhere
except in the south-western plains of France, the Rhone valley and a
large area in the south-east of Russia. Without doubt an important
cause of the prolonged duration of high temperatures in this last area
is the relatively long duration of sunshine already mentioned as shown
by Koenig's map to be characteristic of south-eastern Europe.
Mention should here be made also of Brueckner's remarkable treatise on
the variations of climate in time. Though it deals with such
variations over the entire land-surface of the globe, a large
proportion of the data are derived from Europe, for which continent,
accordingly, it furnishes a great number of particulars with regard to
secular variations in temperature, rainfall, the date of the vintage,
the frequency of cold winters, the level of rivers and lakes, the
duration of the ice-free period of rivers (in this case all Russian),
and other matters. Those relating to the date of the vintage are of
peculiar interest. They apply to 29 stations in France, south-west
Germany and Switzerland, and for one station (Dijon) go back with few
breaks to the year 1391; and as the variations of climate of which
they give an indication correspond precisely to the indications
derived from temperature and rainfall in those periods in which we
have corresponding data for these meteorological elements, they may be
taken as warranting conclusions with regard to these points even for
periods for which direct data are wanting. A period of early vintages
corresponds to one of comparatively scanty rains and high
temperatures. It is accordingly interesting to note that the data
referred to indicate, on the whole, for Dijon an earlier vintage for
the average of all periods of five years down to 1435 than for the
average of the periods of the same length from 1816-1880; but that the
figures generally show no regular retardation from period to period,
but more or less regular oscillations, differing in their higher and
lower limits in different periods of long duration.
Cultivated plants.
Much light has been thrown on the present state of agriculture in
Europe by the publication of Engelbrecht's _Landbauzonen der
aussertropischen Laender_.[40] Of the two chief bread-plants of Europe,
wheat and rye, wheat is cultivated as far north as about 69 deg. N. both
in Norway and Finland, but the limit of the area in which more wheat
is cultivated than rye to the west and south, more rye than wheat to
the east and north, runs parallel to the west coast of the Netherlands
and Belgium, then strikes south-eastwards so as to include nearly all
Germany except Alsace-Lorraine and the south-west of Wuerttemberg, also
eastern Switzerland, nearly all the Alpine provinces of Austria and
nearly the whole region north of the Carpathians, as well as the
greater part of Bohemia within the area in which rye predominates,
while in Russia the limit runs east-north-east from about 44 deg. N. in
the west to about 55 deg. N. in the Urals. On one side of this line wheat
makes up more than 80% of the entire grain area[41] in western
Rumania, in Italy and a large part of the south-west of France, and
from 40% to 60% in the south-east of England. Spelt is cultivated in
the south-west of Germany, Belgium and northern Switzerland, on the
middle Volga and in Dalmatia and Servia. Rye covers more than 50% of
the grain area in the east of Holland and Belgium, in the north-west
of Germany, in central and eastern Germany and in middle Russia. Oats
are more cultivated than all varieties of wheat in Ireland, in the
west and the northern half of Great Britain, in Finland and in the
greater part of Denmark and Schleswig-Holstein. Barley is more largely
cultivated than oats both in the extreme north and the south of the
continent. Maize is cultivated to a great extent in the north-west of
the Iberian Peninsula, in the south-west of France, in northern Italy
and in the lands bordering the lower Danube; in many parts covering an
area equal to or greater than that occupied by all grain crops.
Millets (various species of panicum) are most extensively cultivated
in the south-east of Europe. The kind of millet known as guinea-corn
or durra (_Sorghum vulgare_ Pers.), so extensively cultivated in
Africa and India, is grown to a small extent on the east side and in
the interior of Istria. Buckwheat is cultivated in the west and east
of the continent--in the west from the Pyrenees to Jutland, in the
east throughout southern and middle Russia. The potato is very largely
cultivated in western, northern and central Europe, but has made
comparatively little progress in Russia. The cultivation of lentils is
most largely pursued in the west and south-west of Germany and in the
south and north of France. That of lupines has spread with great
rapidity since 1840 in the dry sandy regions of eastern Germany, where
lupines have proved as well adapted for such soils as the more widely
cultivated sainfoin has done for dry chalky and other limestone soils.
Sugar beet is most largely cultivated in the extreme north of France
and the adjoining parts of Belgium and in central Germany, to a less
but still considerable extent in south-eastern Germany, northern
Bohemia and the south-west of Russia. Flax, like other industrial
plants, shows a tendency to concentrate itself on specially favourable
districts. It is most extensively grown in Russia from the vicinity of
Riga north-eastwards, even crossing in the north-east the 70th
parallel of latitude; but it is also an important crop in the
north-east of Ireland, in Belgium and Holland, in Lombardy and in
northern Tirol. Hemp is more extensively cultivated in central and
southern Europe, above all in Russia. Teasels are grown in various
spots in the south-east of France and in south Germany. The
cultivation of madder is not yet extinct in Holland and Belgium, that
of weld (_Reseda luteola_), woad (_Isatis tinctoria_) and saffron not
yet in France.
The vine can be grown without protection in southern Scandinavia, and
has been known to ripen its grapes in the open air at Christiansund in
63 deg. 7'; but its cultivation is of no importance north of 471/2 deg. on the
Atlantic coast, 501/2 deg. on the Rhine, and from 50 deg. to 52 deg. in eastern
Germany, the limit falling rapidly southwards to the east of 17 deg. E.
The olive, with its double crop, is one of the principal objects of
cultivation in Italy, Spain and Greece, and is not without its
importance in Portugal, Turkey and southern Austria. Tobacco is grown
to a considerable extent in many parts of western, central and
southern Europe, for the most part under government regulation. The
most important tobacco districts are the Rhine valley in Baden and
Alsace, Hungary, Rumania, the banks of the Dnieper, Bosnia and the
south-west and other parts of France. The cultivation is even carried
on in Sweden and Great Britain, but the most northerly area in which
it occupies as much as 0.1% of the grain area is the Danish island of
Fyen (Funen).
Hop-growing is hardly known in the south, but forms an important
industry in England, Austria, Germany and Belgium. Among the exotics
exclusively cultivated in the south are the sugar-cane, the cotton
plant, and rice. The first, which is found in Spain and Sicily, is of
little practical moment; the second holds a secondary position in
Turkey and Greece; and the third is pretty extensively grown in
special districts of Italy, more particularly in the valley of the Po.
Even pepper is cultivated to a small extent in the extreme south of
Spain. Of the vast number of fruit trees which flourish in different
parts of the continent only a few can be mentioned. Their produce
furnishes articles of export to Austria-Hungary, Germany, France,
Belgium, Italy and Spain. In Sardinia the acorn of the _Quercus
Ballota_ is still used as a food, and in Italy, France and Austria the
chestnut is of very common consumption. In the Mediterranean region
the prevailing forms--which the Germans conveniently sum together in
the expression _Suedfruechte_, or southern fruits--are the orange, the
citron, the almond, the pomegranate, the fig and the carob tree. The
palm trees have a very limited range: the date palm (_Phoenix
dactylifera_) ripens only in southern Spain with careful culture; the
dwarf palm (_Chamaerops humilis_) forms thickets along the Spanish
coast and in Sicily, and appears less frequently in southern Italy and
Greece.
Wheat and rye.
Special interest attaches to the two main bread crops of Europe, wheat
and rye, the average annual production of which in the different
countries of the continent at three periods is shown in the following
tables.
_Average Production of Wheat in Millions of Bushels._
+---------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+
| | 1872-1876.[42]| 1881-1890.[43]| 1894-1903.[44]|
+---------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+
| Austria-Hungary[45] | 137 | 161 | 191 |
| Belgium | 22 | 18 | 15 |
| Bulgaria[46] | .. | 40 | 36 |
| Denmark | 4.7 | 5 | 3.6 |
| France | 277 | 309 | 335 |
| Germany | 101 | 93 | 127 |
| Greece | .. | 7 | 4 |
| Italy | 140 | 122 | 131 |
| Netherlands | 6 | 6 | 6 |
| Norway | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| Portugal | 9 | 8 | 8 |
| Rumania[46] | .. | 50 | 57 |
| Russia[47] | 275 | 242 | 325 |
| Servia[46] | .. | 8 | 11 |
| Spain[48] | 168 | 73 | 101 |
| Sweden | 3 | 3.7 | 4.5 |
| Switzerland | 2 | 2.6 | 5 |
| Turkey in Europe[46]| .. | 38 | 18 |
| United Kingdom | 91 | 78 | 57 |
+---------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+
_Average Production of Rye in Millions of Bushels in the chief
Rye-producing Countries of Europe._[49]
+---------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+
| | 1872-1876. | 1881-1890. | 1894-1903. |
+---------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+
| Austria-Hungary | 129 | 122 | 124 |
| Belgium | 16 | 17 | 20 |
| Denmark | 15 | 17 | 22 |
| France | 69 | 69 | 73 |
| Germany | 209 | 228 | 368 |
| Netherlands | 10 | 11 | 16 |
| Russia[50] | 715 | 713 | 971 |
| Spain | 32 | 21 | 23 |
| Sweden | 18 | 20 | 27 |
+---------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+
Perhaps the most striking facts revealed by these two tables are
these; first, that the United Kingdom is the only great wheat-growing
country which has shown a great decline in the amount of production in
two successive periods; and, second, that both Germany and Russia show
a great advance under both wheat and rye between the last two periods.
This gives interest to statistics of acreage under these two crops,
and some data under that head are given in the adjoining tables.
_Acreage under Rye._
+-----------+------------+------------+
| Period. | Germany. | Russia |
| | |(ex-Poland).|
+-----------+------------+------------+
| 1881-1890 | 14.50 | .. |
| 1883-1887 | .. | 64.6 |
| 1899-1903 | 14.74 | 65.5 |
+-----------+------------+------------+
These figures show that the increased production is only in part, in
some cases in small part, attributable to increase in area, and the
following figures giving the average annual yield of wheat per acre
(a) in the period preceding 1885, and (b) generally in the period of
five years preceding 1905, shows that an improvement in yield in
recent years has been very general.
+--------------+-------+-------++----------------+-------+-------+
| | (a) | (b) || | (a) | (b) |
+--------------+-------+-------++----------------+-------+-------+
| Austria | 15.8 | 17.3 || Italy | 12.0 | 12.8 |
| Hungary | 15.5 | 17.5 || Netherlands | 25.0 | 30.7 |
| Belgium | 24.5 | 34.5 || Russia | 8.0 | 9.7 |
| France | 18.0 | 19.2 || Poland | .. | 14.8 |
| Germany | 18.5 | 28.2 || United Kingdom | 29 | 29.9 |
+--------------+-------+-------++----------------+-------+-------+
Forests.
When the Aryan peoples began their immigration into Europe a large
part of the surface must have been covered with primeval forest; for
even after long centuries of human occupation the Roman conquerors
found vast regions where the axe had made no lasting impression. The
account given by Julius Caesar of the Silva Hercynia is well known: it
extended, he tells us, for sixty days' journey from Helvetia eastward,
and it probably included what are now called the Schwarzwald, the
Odenwald, the Spessart, the Rhoen, the Thueringerwald, the Harz, the
Fichtelgebirge, the Erzgebirge and the Riesengebirge. Since then the
progress of population has subjected many thousands of square miles to
the plough, and in some parts of the continent it is only where the
ground is too sterile or too steep that the trees have been allowed to
retain possession. Several countries, where the destruction has been
most reckless, have been obliged to take systematic measures to
control the exploitation and secure the replantation of exhausted
areas. To this they have been constrained not only by lack of timber
and fuel, but also by the prejudicial effects exerted on the climate
and the irrigation of the country by the denudation of the high
grounds. But even now, on the whole, Europe is well wooded, and two or
three countries find an extensive source of wealth in the export of
timber and other forest productions, such as turpentine, tar,
charcoal, bark, bast and potash.
_Acreage under Wheat._[51]
+--------------------+--------+-------+----------+--------+--------+--------+------------+--------+
| Period. | United |France.| Italy. |Germany.|Austria.|Hungary.| Russia |Rumania.|
| |Kingdom.| | | | | |(ex-Poland).| |
+--------------------+--------+-------+----------+--------+--------+--------+------------+--------+
| Average, 1881-1885 | 2.8 | 17.2 | 11.7[52] | 4.6 | 2.6 | 6.5 | 28.9[53] | .. |
| " 1886-1890 | 2.5 | 17.3 | 10.9[52] | 4.8 | 2.8 | 7.1 | .. | .. |
| " 1891-1895 | 2.0 | 16.7 | 11.3[52] | 4.9 | 2.7 | 8.3 | 32.5 | 3.5 |
| " 1896-1900 | 2.0 | 16.9 | 11.3[52] | 4.9 | 2.6 | 8.2 | 36.9 | 3.8 |
| " 1901-1903 | 1.7 | 16.3 | 12.0 | 4.4 | 2.6 | 9.0 | 42.8 | 3.9 |
+--------------------+--------+-------+----------+--------+--------+--------+------------+--------+
The following estimates of the forest areas of European countries are
given in G.S. Boulger's _Wood_:--