CONTENTS. I. Nature and Advantages of Physical Geography II. The Earth; Its Position in the Universe, Figure, Magnitude, and Density-General Structure of its Surface-Phenomena of Earthquakes and Vol- III. General Distribution of Land and Water-Moun- tains, Valleys, Plains-Table of Heights of Moun- IV. Distribution of the Waters of the Globe-Ocean- Inland Seas-Lakes-Rivers-Springs XII. Alpine System-Switzerland-The German High- Carpathian Mountains Dalmatian Range-Balkan Mountains-Greece and Tur- key Northern Highland of Europe-Scandinavia. 185 XIV. Central Line of Mountains in Asia-Asia Minor XVII. Volcanic Region, from the Aleutian Islands to the Moluccas-Volcanic Line, from Formosa to the Caspian-Volcanic Region, from the Cas- pian to the Azores-Icelandic Volcanic Region 263 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. CHAPTER I. NATURE AND ADVANTAGES OF PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. The great globe itself.-SHAKSpeare. FEW subjects connected with science are of more universal interest, or of greater importance to mankind, than that of Physical Geography, and yet few, perhaps, have hitherto so little arrested popular attention. This is, however, a circumstance for which it is by no means difficult to account, being in great measure, if not wholly, attributable to the comparatively recent elevation of this branch of natural philosophy to the dignity of a science, and to the consequent generally prevailing ignorance of its real objects, of the highly interesting views it unfolds, and of its great practical utility. The extent to which this misapprehension has been carried, is evinced by the prejudice entertained against the very name of physical geography, which, to some persons, seems to assume a strangely forbidding aspect. Unacquainted with the real character of the subject, they are ready either to reject it as one of abstruse nature, adapted only for the scientific reader, or as one of dry detail, and devoid of general interest. The former notion is probably derived from the adoption of the appellation "physical ;" but the whole of this apparent obscurity vanishes, when we regard this term in its proper meaning of "natural*." The * Possibly we shall not err if we attribute a certain portion of this prejudice, to the long and common application, or misapplication, of the term "physic" to medical preparations, in which sense it is now, however, nearly exploded. This acceptation of the term probably owed its origin to the use of "simples," or natural productions, as medicaments, the B |