Page:EB1911 - Volume 09.djvu/942

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GEOGRAPHY]
EUROPE
  909


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 Görz 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.[1] 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.

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, Relief. 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,[2] 975 ft.; De Lapparent,[3] 960 ft.; Murray,[4] 939 ft.; Supan,[5] 950 ft.; von Tillo,[6] 1040 ft.; Heiderich,[7] 1230 ft.; Penck,[8] 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.

 Name of River.   Length in English Miles.   Area of Basin 
in sq. m.
 Strelbitsky.  Other
 Authorities. 
 Strelbitsky. 
Volga  1977[9] 2107[10] 563,300
Danube 1644  .. 315,435
Ural 1446  1477[10]  96,350
Dnieper (Dnyepr) 1064  1328[10] 203,460
Kama 984 1115[10] 202,615
Don (Russia) 980 1123[10] 166,125
Pechora 915 1024[10] 127,225
Rhine 709 ..  63,265
Oka 706 914[10]  93,205
Dniester (Dnyestr)  646 835[10]  29,675
Elbe 612 ..  55,340
Vistula 596 646[10]  73,905
Vyatka 596 680[10]  50,555
Tagus 566 ..   31,865[11]
Theiss (Tisza) 550 ..  59,350
Loire 543 ..  46,755
Save 535 ..  37,595
Meuse 530 ..  12,740
Mezen 496 507[10]  30,410
Donets 487 613[10]  37,890
Douro 485 ..  36,705
Düna (S. Dvina) 470 576[10]  32,975
Ebro 470 ..   38,580[11]
Rhone 447 ..  38,180
Desna 438 590[10]  33,535
Niemen (Nyeman) 437 537[10]  34,965
Drave 434 ..  15,745
Bug (Southern) 428 477[10]  26,225
Seine 425 ..  30,030
Oder 424 ..  17,150
Kuban 405 509[10]  21,490
Khoper 387 563[10]  23,120
Maros 390 ..  16,975
Pripet 378 404[10]  46,805
Guadalquivir 374 ..   21,580[11]
Pruth (Prutŭ) 368 503[10]  10,330
Northern Dvina 358 447[10] 141,075
Weser-Werra 355 ..  19,925
Po 354 ..   28,920[11]
Garonne-Gironde 342 ..  32,745
Vetluga 328 464[10]  14,325
Pinega 328 407[10]  17,425
Glommen 326 352[12]  15,930
Bug (Western) 318 450[10]  22,460
Guadiana 316 ..   25,300[11]
Aluta (Alt, Oltŭ) 308 ..  9,095
Mosel 300 ..  10,950
Main 300 ..  10,600
Maritsa 272 ..  20,790
Jucar 270 ..   7,620[11]
Mologa 268 338[10]  15,005
Tornea 268 ..  13,045
Inn 268 ..  9,825
Saône 268 ..  8,295
Moldau 255 267[12]  10,860
Moksha 249 371[10]  19,090
Ljusna 243 ..  7,700
Mur 242 ..  5,200
Morava, Servian 235 ..  15,715
Klar 224 ..  4,520
Voronezh 218 305[10]  7,760
Berezina 218 285[10]  9,295
Saale 215 ..  8,970
Onega 212 245[10]  22,910
Vág (Waag) 212 ..  6,245
Dema 209 275[10]  4,830
San 203 444[10]  6,135
Moskva 189 305[10]  5,910
Western Manych 176 295[10]  37,820
Klyazma 159 394[10]  15,200

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 Arrangement of
the highlands.
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


  1. See Ed. Suess, The Face of the Earth, translated by H. B. C. Sollas, vol. i. (Oxford, 1904); J. Milne, Seismology (London, 1886); R. Hörnes, Erdbebenkunde (Leipzig, 1893).
  2. Die mittlere Höhe Europas (Plauen, 1874).
  3. Traité de géologie (Paris, 1883).
  4. Scot. Geog. Mag. (1888), p. 23.
  5. Petermanns Mitteilungen (1889), p. 17.
  6. Trans. (Izvestiya) Imp. Rus. Geog. Soc. (1889), p. 113.
  7. Die mittleren Erhebungsverhaltnisse der Erdoberfläche, pt. i., in Penck’s Geographische Abhandlungen, vol. v. (Vienna, 1891).
  8. Morphologie der Erdoberfläche, vol. i.
  9. The equivalent of the figures given in Superficie de l’Europe. A later measurement by Strelbitsky yielded a result equal to 2215 English miles.
  10. 10.00 10.01 10.02 10.03 10.04 10.05 10.06 10.07 10.08 10.09 10.10 10.11 10.12 10.13 10.14 10.15 10.16 10.17 10.18 10.19 10.20 10.21 10.22 10.23 10.24 10.25 10.26 10.27 10.28 10.29 10.30 10.31 10.32 10.33 General von Tillo, in Transactions (Izvestiya) Imp. Rus. Geog. Soc. vol. xix. (1883), pp. 160-161.
  11. 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 Dr Al. Bludau in Petermanns Mitteilungen (1898), pp. 185-187, has given new calculations of the areas of the basins of certain European rivers, namely, the Tagus, 31,250 sq. m.; Ebro, 32,810 sq. m.; Guadalquivir, 21,620 sq. m.; Po, 28,800 sq. m.; Guadiana, 25,810 sq. m.; and Jucar, 8245 sq. m.
  12. 12.0 12.1 St Martin, Dict. de géog. univ.