Europe, one of the five principal divisions of the globe, the smallest except Australia, but the most important in the history of civilization. Geographically considered, it is merely a N. W. peninsula of the Asiatic continent, but from the earliest times it has been distinguished as a separate division. The Greeks first applied the name to that portion of the continent nearest to them, and traced it to the myth of Europa. But there have been many other theories, none of which has remained uncontested. Ancient writers derive the name from Eurus, south wind, or from and (a Scythic word, quoted by the Greeks), the broad land, or from and the broad-looking (land). Modern scholars have sought for the origin of the name in the Semitic languages. Thus Bochart derives it from the Hebrew word ereb (west), while others hold that it is a corrupt form of the words havra appa (white-faced). If the name be Semitic, it must have been introduced by the Phoenicians, who were early familiar with almost all the shores of Europe. Their neighbors, the Hebrews, however, had no general name for the countries N. of the Mediterranean, though they were well known to them. The name of Europe does not appear in Homer's catalogue of countries, though it occurs, and so far as we know for the first time, in the Homeric hymn to Apollo. It is here applied to a region especially distinguished from the Peloponnesus and the Greek islands, but to exactly what portion of the then known world it is impossible to determine. Greece, the islands of the AEgean and Ionian seas, Sicily, Thrace, and a part of southern Italy, seem to have been all the territories now included under the designation of which the contemporaries of Homer had any definite knowledge.

In the time of the historian Heca-taeus (about 500 B. C.) some acquaintance had been made with the general features of Spain, southern Gaul, the region near the source of the Rhine, the borders of the lower Danube, and the shores of the Euxine and of the Palus Maso-tis (sea of Azov); Italy, all the Mediterranean islands, and Thrace were now perfectly known. Herodotus, though in his day exploration had been carried much further to the north, placed the northern boundary of Europe (which he like his predecessors believed to be formed by the great river Oceanus) at a considerable distance south of the coast of the Baltic; but in his time the eastern and southeastern boundary afterward accepted as the limit of Europe by all the ancient nations, and formed by the Tanais river (Don), the Palus Maeotis, and the Cimmerian Bosporus (strait of Yenikale), was already well defined; the knowledge of northern and central Gaul had been largely increased, and all the south-central region was comparatively well known ground.

Even in Strabo's time, when the North and Baltic seas were considered the extreme northern boundaries, the central and north-central portions of the continent were still but little explored; the present Russian possessions were almost entirely unknown: and though the great provinces conquered by Rome had now been thoroughly surveyed, it was not till the northern campaigns of Drusus Nero (B. C. 12-9) and of Germanicus (A. D. 14-16) that any really accurate knowledge of the northern Germanic regions appears to have been gained. About this period, too, the existence of the Scandinavian peninsula, northern Russia, and the Arctic ocean seems to have become known. From this time exploration and the knowledge of European geography made rapid progress; but it was not perfected until the political supremacy had passed from the Roman to the Germanic races. - Though much smaller in size than either Asia, Africa, or America, Europe has for many centuries exerted a greater influence upon the destiny of other portions of the globe than all the other divisions.

For nearly 1,000 years subsequent to the downfall of the Roman empire, it is true, it slowly and laboriously struggled through barbarism at a time when the Mongolian race in eastern Asia had already attained a more perfect state of society and culture. It is only within the last four centuries that European civilization has matured so far as to be able to wield a control- . ling influence over distant regions and to stamp its seal upon their political state. - According to Ritter, Europe, with all islands belonging to it, has a superficies of 3,700,000 sq. m., and 20,780 m. of coast line, including 790 on the Caspian sea. Behm and Wagner (Bevolkerung der Erde, 1872) estimate the total area at 3,787,000 sq. m.; while the Almanack de Gotha, and several other eminent statistical authorities agree in stating it at about 3,G27,000 sq. m. Regarding the length of the coast line there is a much greater difference in the estimates, but Ritter's is probably nearly correct. The extreme points of the European continent are :

North: Cape North, lat. 71° 10' N., Ion. 25° 46' E. South: Cape Tarifa, " 36° 00' N., " 5° 36'W. West: Cape Roca, " 38" 46' N, " 9" 31'W. East: Sea of Kara, " 68° 00' N., " 66° 00' E.

The length of Europe from Cape St. Vincent in the southwest to the sea of Kara in the northeast is about 3,450 m.; the width from Cape North to Cape Matapan (the southernmost point of the Greek peninsula), 2,420 m. Europe is bounded N. by the Arctic ocean, E. by the Ural mountains and river and the Caspian sea, S. by the ridge of the Caucasus mountains, the Black sea, and the Mediterranean, and TV. by the Atlantic ocean. The boundary line between Europe and Asia is somewhat undetermined, but that which ascends the Ural river from its mouth at the Caspian sea to the Ural mountain range, and follows the crest of that range to the sea of Kara, is usually adopted. The islands of Nova Zembla are set down by Humboldt as properly belonging to Asia, since by their vertical configuration they appear as a continuation of the Ural range, which he included in Asia. Erman, on the contrary, shows their connection with the Scandinavian mountain system, and this is also the view taken by most English geographers. The continent proper has the shape of a rectangular triangle, the hypothenuse of which extends from the bay of Biscay to the sea of Kara, while the right angle rests on the Caspian sea.

The area of this main body of the continent is about 2,650,000 sq. m., that of the peninsular projections about 860,000, and that of the islands nearly 200,000. Altogether Europe contains about 7/100 of the total area of the dry land of the globe. The proportion of the total area of the peninsular projections to the main body of the continent is as 1 to 3, a larger ratio than is found in any other division of the globe. A curved line drawn from a point in the Ural mountains, lat. 60° or 61° N., to the W. coast of Norway, lat. 69°, passing through Lake Onega and a little N. of the gulf of Bothnia, marks the general limit of cultivation. It cuts off an area of about 550,000 sq. m., or more than one seventh of the entire surface. Europe is surrounded by water on three sides. On the north the Arctic ocean, penetrating 400 m. into the continent, forms the White sea, which has an area of upward of 40,000 sq. m. Its coast, situated for the greatest part within the temperate zone, has become a seat of culture notwithstanding its high latitude.

On the west the Atlantic ocean, narrowing between the British islands, the Scandinavian peninsula, and the continent, assumes the form of an inland sea (North sea, or German ocean, area upward of 200,000 sq. m.), which is connected by the Skager Rack and Cattegat with the Baltic sea. The Baltic, comparatively a shallow sea, and less salt than the ocean, is almost entirely landlocked. By its numerous affluents, however, it has obtained a commercial and even a political importance in the history of the Teutonic race almost equal to that of the Black sea in early Greek history. Its area, exclusive of islands, is over 150,000 sq. m. The configuration of the southern coast of Europe is determined by the Mediterranean sea (including the Adriatic and archipelago), a sheet of water over 2,300 m. in length, covering an area of over 1,000,000 sq. m. By its position it forms the connecting link between Europe, Asia, and Africa, and for more than 20 centuries the history of the Caucasian race was principally developed upon its coast.

The Black sea, connected with the Mediterranean by a narrow channel, is 700 m. long, 400 m. broad, and has a superficies of 180,000 sq. m. exclusive of the sea of Azov. In consequence of the deep indentations of the sea, the western half of Europe contains no great inland country shut up from direct communication with the ocean. The distance from the bay of Biscay to the gulf of Lyons is only about 240 m.; from the English channel to the same gulf, 445 m.; from the Pomeranian shore of the Baltic to the gulf of Trieste, 585 m.; from the gulf of Dant-zic to the Black sea, 740 m.; from the gulf of Finland to the sea of Azov, 930 m.; from the White sea to the sea of Azov, 1,160 m.; and from the sea of Kara to the Caspian sea, 1,575 m. Twelve large peninsulas are formed by indentations of the sea, five of them on the north: Kanin, Kola, the Scandinavian peninsula, the Cimbric, and North Holland; two on the west: Normandy and Brittany; one on the southwest: the Iberian; and four on the south: Italy, Istria, Greece, and the Crimea. The first two of the five northern peninsulas stretch toward the Arctic ocean, and are consequently almost uninhabitable. The largest of the five (the Scandinavian) has a southern direction.

Thus only a small portion of the coast configuration is lost to culture and commerce. The islands, too, with the exception of Iceland, cluster so closely around the continent that, in considering the natural facilities which Europe offers to commercial intercourse, their coast line might be added to that of the continent. The principal of them are: the main island of Great Britain, Ireland, Iceland, Seeland, Corsica, Sardinia, and Candia. The following may also be mentioned: Nova Zembla and Vaigatch, in the Arctic ocean; the Loffo-den, on the coast of Norway; the Aland archipelago, Oland, Gothland, Oesel, in the Baltic; Funen, between the two Belts; the Azores, in the Atlantic; Majorca, Minorca, Elba, the Lipari islands, Malta, the Dalmatian archipelago, the Ionian islands, the Sporades and Cyclades, in the Mediterranean sea and its branches. - The same direction from S. W. to N. E. which prevails in the coast configuration is perceptible in the position of the mountains and their different strata. All the peninsulas, those stretching to the northward excepted, are mountainous, as are the islands, while the plains cover the largest portion of the main body of the continent.

The proportion of the plains to the mountainous regions in all Europe is as 5 to 2; but in that portion of Europe which has been preeminently the seat of civilization and the theatre of history, the mountains prevail over the plains as 3 to 1. A diagonal line of mountain ranges, extending from S. E. to N. W. (Caucasus, Carpathians, and the mountains of central Germany), forms the dividing line between the mountainous and the level portions of Europe. The level region extending from the shores of the North sea to the Ural, and from the coast of the Netherlands in an irregular southeasterly direction to the Black sea, appears as a western continuation of the steppes of Siberia and Turan, intersected by the isolated Ural range. While on the shores of the North sea its width is less than 100 m., in the extreme east it is 1,400 m. wide. Its entire length is near 2,300 m., its area about 2,000,000 sq. m. Proceeding from the heaths of West Brabant in an easterly direction, even beyond the Ural passes to the steppes on the western slope of the Altai mountains, 80 degrees of longitude, no elevation of over 1,200 or 1,300 ft. above the level of the sea is met with.

The western or European portion of this plain appears to have formed, after the commencement of the tertiary period of geology, the bed of the sea. It includes the basins of the Baltic and White seas. A part of it is traversed by rivers flowing northward from the Alps, the mountains of central Germany, and the Carpathians. To the eastward the watershed between the Baltic and the Black and Caspian seas is only a few hundred feet in elevation; commencing at a spur of the Carpathians near the source of the Dniester, it runs through the Russian governments of Volhynia, Grodno, Minsk, Mohilev, Smolensk, Pskov, Tver, Novgorod, and Vologda, to the Ural range. Though interspersed with marshes, bogs, and heaths, this immense plain is susceptible of high culture, but nowhere is the soil so fertile as to produce crops without laborious diligence. Connected with this large plain are two lesser ones, in France and in Hungary. - The mountain system of southern and western Europe is grouped around the central mass of the Alps, which forms the summit and the principal watershed of the continent.

The Alps, covering an area of nearly 100,000 sq. m., slope down on four sides toward France, Germany, Hungary, and Italy. The highest elevation of this system and of all Europe is Mont Blanc (15,732 ft., according to Bruguiere). The lowest limit of perpetual snow in the Alps is 8,760 ft., between lat. 45° and 40° N. Connected with the Alpine system are the mountain systems of the three southern peninsulas, viz., the Pyrenean system, the Apennines, and the Balkan, and also the group of the Carpathian and Sudetic mountains. The Pyrenees stretch from E. to W. for 240 m., but, including the Cantabrian mountains, their length is 500 m. Their S. side, toward Spain, is rugged and precipitous, while on the north they descend gradually by a series of parallel ridges into France. They send four principal branches through the Iberian peninsula, the whole system covering a superficial area of about 200,000 sq. m. The culminating point of the system, in its widest acceptation, is the Cerro de Mulhacen in the Sierra Nevada (11,654 ft.). The Apennines, stretching from the Alps through the entire length of Italy to the strait of Messina, cover an area of 60,000 sq. m.

Their highest summit is Monte Corno (9,542 ft.). The Carpathian and Sudetic mountains, with the Erzgebirge and the Bohemian Forest, form one chain extending 1,200 m. in length, from the Danube in Hungary to the same river in Bavaria. Their highest elevations, from 6,000 to 9,000 ft,, are in Transylvania and Hungary, where they surpass the lower limit of perpetual snow. The Balkan, a direct continuation of the Dinaric Alps, sweeps in an irregular curve from the Adriatic to the Black sea. Its principal part is the Haemus of the ancients. Its general elevation is about 4,000 ft.; a few of its summits rise about 4,000 ft. higher. Thence one range, including the ancient Pindus, diverges to the south, dividing Albania from Roumelia, and connecting with the mountains of Greece, the loftiest summits of which attain an elevation of upward of 8,000 ft. Another, the Rhodope of the ancients, now called Despoto Dagh, diverges further E. in a S. E. direction, and, traversing western Thrace, reaches the archipelago. The Rilo Dagh, near its starting point, is 9,838 ft. high. Between the two are various branches, one of which includes Mt. Olympus, 9,754 ft.

Between the Alpine system proper, the Pyrenees, and the Atlantic (in France), there are three separate mountain ranges, viz., the Ce-vennes and mountains of Auvergne, the Jura, and the Vosges. The first divides the low country on the Mediterranean and the basin of the Rhone from the plains extending W. to the Atlantic; its general elevation is from 3,000 to 5,000 ft., though some peaks (Mont Dore, Can-tal, and Mont Mezin) rise to a height of about 6,000 ft. The Jura, of nearly the same elevation, extends along the frontier of France and Switzerland. Further N. the Vosges divide the basin of the Rhine from that of the Moselle, their loftiest summits reaching an altitude of about 4,700 ft. There are several plains, independent and differing in their principal features from the great northern plain, enclosed by the Alpine system, namely, the basins of the Po, the Rhone, and the upper Rhine. Besides the above mentioned ranges, all more or less immediately connected with the central system of the Alps, Europe contains in its islands and peninsulas five distinct mountain systems.

They are the Sardo-Corsican, the Tauric, the British-Hibernian, the Scandinavian, and the Sar-matian. The Sardo-Corsican, as its designation implies, is the range of mountains stretching from N. to S. through the islands of Corsica and Sardinia; its highest summit, Monte Rotondo in Corsica, has an elevation of 9,054 ft. The Tauric system is confined to the southern portion of the Crimea, its greatest elevation being 4,740 ft. The British-Hibernian system, in Great Britain and Ireland, is comparatively insignificant, rising in its highest peaks (in Scotland) but little over 4,000 ft. The Scandinavian Alps (Kiolen and Do-vrefield) extend 1,000 m. from N. to S. through the entire length of the Scandinavian peninsula, at a general elevation of from 3,000 to 6,000 ft. The highest summits are Ymes Field, 8,540 ft., Skagtols Tind, 8,061, and the Sneehaetten, 7,562 ft. In the N. portion the lower limit of perpetual snow is at 3,500 ft. above the level of the sea. The Sarmatian system consists only of a few scattered hill chains in Russia, Poland, and the N. E. part of Prussia; its greatest elevation, in the plateau of Valdai, is only 1,150 ft.

The Ural range, which forms the northern portion of the E. boundary line of Europe, extends from N. to S. through 18 degrees of latitude, with a general elevation of about 2,000 ft., several summits rising to a height of more than 5,000 ft. Toward the south it diverges into smaller ridges that extend to the Caspian sea, the sea of Aral, and the steppes of the Kirghiz. A volcanic belt extends through the southernmost portion of Europe from central Asia and Asia Minor through the archipelago, Greece, Naples, Sicily, Spain, and Portugal, to the Azores. Along this line destructive earthquakes are of frequent occurrence. Besides many extinct craters, there are two active volcanoes, Etna in Sicily and Vesuvius near Naples. In the north, Iceland constitutes a distinct volcanic region. Its principal volcano is Mt. Hecla, some irruptions of which have lasted for six years. The S. W. portion of the island contains the famous geysers, or intermittent springs of steam and boiling water. There are two other volcanoes, one on the island of Jan Mayen, between Iceland and Spitsbergen, the other on the northern island of Nova Zembla. - The river systems of Europe are less extensive than those of either Asia or America. The principal watershed, running S. W. and N. E., from the strait of Gibraltar to the sea of Kara, divides the continent into a S. E. and a N. W. slope, the former containing about four sevenths and the latter three sevenths of the total area.

On the S. E. slope the basin of the Caspian sea comprises over 500,000 sq. m.; that of the Black sea and the sea of Azov about 950,000 sq. m.; and the basin of the Mediterranean sea, 575,000 sq. m. On the N. W. slope the Atlantic basin and the basin of the Baltic comprise about 450,000 sq. m. each, the basin of the North sea 400,000, and that of the Arctic ocean nearly 200,000. The following are some of the more important rivers flowing into the different seas: 1, Caspian sea: Ural and Volga; 2, sea of Azov : Don; 3, Black sea : Dnieper, Dniester, Danube; 4, Mediterranean: Maritza, Isonzo, Adige, Po, Tiber, Arno, Var, Rhone, Ebro; 5, Atlantic: Minho, Douro, Tagus, Guadiana, Guadalquivir; 6, bay of Biscay: Garonne, Loire; 7, British channel: Seine, Soinme; 8, North sea: Scheldt, Rhine, Ems, Weser, Elbe, Eider; 9, Cattegat: Glommen; 10, Baltic sea: Ulea, Neva, Duina, Niemen, Vistula, Oder, Dal Elf, Angermann Elf, Umea Elf, Pitea Elf, Lulea Elf, Tornea Elf; 11, Arctic ocean: Onega, Dwina, Mezen, Petchora. Besides these, there are the rivers of the British islands, the chief of which are the Thames, Severn, Humber, and Mersey, in England; the Tweed, Clyde, and Forth, in Scotland; the Shannon, Blackwater, Liffey, and Boyne, in Ireland. The largest river of Europe is the Volga, with a course of 2,000 m. and a basin of 500,000 sq. m.; next comes the Danube, with a length of 1,820 m. and a basin of 300,000 sq. m.

Artificial watercourses connect the Caspian sea, the Baltic, and the Arctic ocean, by the Volga, Neva, Duna, and Dwina rivers; the Black and the North sea by the Danube and Rhine; the Mediterranean and the Atlantic ocean, the British channel and the North sea, by numerous canals between the Rhone, Garonne, Loire, Seine, Scheldt, and Rhine. The middle course of most of the large rivers is well adapted to navigation by steam and other vessels, but their usefulness for the purposes of commerce is restricted by obstructions at their mouths. Such is especially the case with the Volga, Don, Danube, and Rhine. - The lakes of Europe are small, and scarcely any of them are important to commerce. The following are among the largest: Ladoga (between 6,000 and 7,000 sq. m.), Onega, Saima, and Enare, in Russia; Wener (about 2,000), Wetter, and Malar, in Sweden; Lake Balaton (450), in Hungary; the lakes of Geneva and Constance in Switzerland; and Garda and Lago Maggiore, in Italy. Four fifths of the lakes in Europe are situated in the region around the Baltic sea. (The geology of Europe is treated under the special heads of the different countries and mountain ranges.) - The whole of Europe, with the exception of a small northernmost portion of the Scandinavian peninsula and Russia, being situated within the temperate zone, enjoys an equable and temperate climate.

The disadvantages arising from the proximity of the Arctic ocean and the climatic influences of northern Asia are more than overborne by many advantages which no other division of the globe enjoys in an equal degree. The prevailing winds are western, and hence before reaching Europe have been in contact with an expanse of water, the surface of which has, even in January and in lat. 45-50° N., rarely a lower temperature than 50° F. In the second place, Europe is influenced by a broad tropical zone, including Africa and Arabia, whose dry soil serves to warm the air carried to Europe by southern winds. On the other hand, the influence of the Arctic ocean upon the climate of the continent is neutralized by the Gulf stream. The combination of all these advantages explains the fact that the mean temperature of Europe is higher than that of any other division of the globe in corresponding latitudes, the isothermal lines of Asia and America bending in Europe to the northward by some 10 degrees of latitude.

Thus in lat. 36° N. the mean temperature of the year is 66° F., and in lat. 71° N. (Cape North) it is 32° F., not lower than in lat. 56° N. on the E. coast of Asia and America. Owing to the causes before mentioned, the mean temperature of Europe is higher and the extremes are less in the same latitudes in the western than in the eastern part. The isothermal line of 50° F. (mean annual temperature) runs from London to Cracow and Odessa, that is to say, from lat. 51° 30' to 46° 22' N., thus declining 5° of latitude to the south in a course of 31° 5' of longitude. A mean annual temperature of 68° is only met with on the southern coast of Portugal. But while the mean temperature diminishes advancing eastward, the extremes of the heat of summer and the cold of winter increase. Thus London has the same mean temperature as Vienna, which lies more than 3° further S., but it has the summer of St. Petersburg and the winter of Milan. The transitions from winter to summer and from summer to winter are less abrupt in the largest portion of Europe than they are in America. Almost everywhere the seasons succeed each other with great regularity. The extreme north only, where the winter lasts for eight months, and the extreme south, form exceptions.

The fall of rain is more equally distributed N. of the Alpine system than S. of it. It has been calculated that the entire quantity of rain falling in the N. part of Europe is less by one third than in the S., but the snow of the north covers the deficiency of rain. The western winds, being laden with the moisture which they have received in passing the Atlantic, generally bring rain, while the eastern winds are dry and chilly. From the same cause the average quantity of rain is largest in Great Britain, and decreases in advancing E. and S. E. Thunderstorms occur in the N. part of Europe almost exclusively during the summer, in the S. part at all seasons of the year. - The vegetation of Europe, dependent upon and corresponding to its climate, has not the extremes of luxuriance or sterility belonging to other great continents. Culture has diversified it, and has domesticated many plants, natives of other countries. Thus the vine, olive, and mulberry have been introduced from Syria, the cotton plant from India, maize from North America, the potato from South America, the walnut and peach from Persia, the apricot from Armenia, the sugar cane and orange from China; while many of the indigenous plants, especially vegetables (as lettuce, cabbage, turnips), have been improved by culture to such a degree that their relationship with their wild types is scarcely evident.

Europe may be divided into three vegetable zones, viz.: 1. The sub-arctic zone, characterized by the prevalence of the pine and birch and of cryptoga-mous plants. It produces little grain except barley, and no fruit. This zone comprises Iceland, the Faroe islands, the Scandinavian peninsula N. of lat. 64°, and Russia N. of lat. 62°. 2. The central zone, subdivided into the zone of the beech and oak, and that of the chestnut and vine. The former includes Great Britain and Ireland, the Scandinavian peninsula S. of lat. 64° N., and the German and Sarmatian plain between lat. 62° and 48°. The latter comprises the valleys and plains between the mountain ranges of central Europe and the Sarmatian plain. In the former, rye and wheat are the principal grains; in the latter, wheat and maize. 3. The southern zone, or the region of perpetual verdure, and of the olive, comprising the three southern peninsulas and the southern coast country of France, distinguished by a great variety and luxuriance of sub-tropical vegetation. The sugar cane, cotton plant, orange, citron, fig, pomegranate, and date grow in the southernmost belt of this region.

The zones in which these fruits and plants grow follow the lines of equal summer heat, and hence run from S. W. to N. E., since the extremes of summer heat and winter cold increase advancing eastward, though the mean annual temperature decreases. Thus the cotton plant is cultivated on a small scale in the southernmost portion of Spain, from lat. 36° to 37°, more largely in Sicily and in the S. E. angle of Italy, in the Balkan peninsula as high as lat. 41° 30', and at Astrakhan in lat. 46°. The olive, which does not succeed on the W. coast of France in lat. 43°, grows as far as lat. 44-45° in the S. E. provinces of Franco and in Italy. The fig and pomegranate, which accompany the olive in the west, are found in the Crimea as far N. as lat. 45°. The climate proper for the culture of maize terminates on the W. coast of France at lat. 45° 30', on the Rhine at 49°, and on the Elbe at 50-51°. Rice has nearly the same geographical range. The culture of the vine extends as far N. as lat. 47° 30' on the Atlantic coast, 50° 30' on the banks of the Rhine, 52° on the Oder river.

In Russia it grows as far N. as lat. 52°, but it is not cultivated beyond 50°, Altogether the region adapted to the cultivation of the vine comprises about three sevenths of Europe, that adapted to the culture of wheat four sevenths. The N. limit of the latter is lat. 57-58° N., though it is raised in a few favored spots in Finland as far N. as lat. 60° and 61°. The hardier kinds of grain, rye, barley, and oats, are cultivated on the W. side of Norway as far as lat. 69° 55' N., but on the E. side of the Scandinavian mountains they scarcely ripen at 67-68°, and still further E. in Russia they cannot be cultivated beyond lat. 60-62°. Peaches and apricots succeed in Russia as far N. as lat. 50°, melons at lat. 52°; and plums and cherries, growing wild as far as lat. 55°, are carried beyond that limit by cultivation. Tobacco is extensively cultivated over the greater part of Europe, from Sicily to Sweden, as are flax and hemp, though they thrive best between lat. 45° and 60°. - Europe contains the various minerals, though in unequal proportions. It is abundantly supplied with iron, copper, lead, coal, and salt, but produces comparatively small quantities of gold and silver.

Gold, though widely diffused, is only found in a few places (Carpathians, Ural mountains, and Scandinavian Alps) in sufficient quantities to repay the expense of working it. Silver is mined in the Hartz, the Carpathians, Ural mountains, Scandinavian Alps, and Sardinia. The richest iron mines are in Sweden, which produces the best quality, in Great Britain, which has the largest quantity, in Styria, Carinthia, Bavaria, the Pyrenees, the Carpathians, and the Hartz mountains. Copper is less abundant than iron; the richest mines of this metal are to be found in Hungary, the Saxon and Bohemian mountains, in England, the Ural mountains, and the Scandinavian Alps. Lead is wrought in most of the large mountain ranges, tin only in a few places (Cornwall and the Hartz). Mercury is likewise confined to a few spots, as the mines of Idria in Carniola, Zweibrucken in the Palatinate, and the Spanish province of La Mancha. The richest coal fields exist in the N. and W. parts of England, on both sides of the middle region of Scotland, in Ireland, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Catalonia in Spain, and Sardinia. Salt is either obtained by the evaporation of brine from salt springs, or from depositories of mineral salt, of which the most extensive are found within the Austro-Hun-garian empire at Wieliczka, in Marmaros, and in Salzburg. Salt springs are numerous along the sides of all mountains belonging to the primitive formation.

Large quantities of salt are also collected from the salt lakes of the Crimea. Zinc is wrought in England and Germany, and cobalt in Saxony and Sweden. Besides these metals, antimony, bismuth, manganese, sulphur, alum, etc, are obtained in larger or smaller quantities in the different mountain chains. - The animal kingdom of Europe is far less varied than the flora. The diversities of the three zoological regions are inconsiderable, and the only real contrast is between the arctic animals of the extreme north, as the reindeer, white bear, etc, and the beasts of prey of the extreme south, the lynx, wild cat, etc. The original features of the fauna of Europe have been greatly modified by culture. Several species of wild animals have disappeared entirely in many countries, as the wolf and bear in Great Britain and in some parts of the continent, while others are becoming scarcer from year to year. Thus the aurochs and the elk in some provinces of Russia, the porcupine in the extreme south, the monkey near Gibraltar, the chamois and ibex in the higher mountain ranges. But if Europe is poor in wild beasts, it is rich in domestic animals.

In the northernmost region, as far S. as lat. 63° in Russia, the domesticated reindeer abounds; central Europe has immense numbers of horses, horned cattle, sheep, goats, and hogs; and southern Europe possesses, besides these, mules, camels (in South Russia), and buffaloes. Of small birds Europe has several hundred species, but many of them are only birds of passage. Among those kinds of birds peculiar to certain regions are the flamingo, spoonbill, pelican, and vulture in the south, gray eagle in the north, eider duck, swan, and red grouse in the north and northeast, bee-eater in the southeast, white owl in the extreme north, .etc. Various species of turtles excepted, Europe has no large amphibia. Fish are more abundant on the N. than on the S. coast; herring and codfish are found only in the north, sturgeon in the Russian rivers and seas, anchovies and pilchards on the S. W. coast, tunny fish in the Mediterranean. Of insects, several kinds of tarantula and scorpions are peculiar to Europe. The silkworm is raised principally in the southern countries, and the honey bee in all the temperate portions of the continent.

The annelids of Europe include the medicinal leech (in Sweden, Germany, Hungary, and Poland). Europe is abundantly supplied with edible mollusks, but they are found in greater abundance and better quality in the Mediterranean sea than on the N. coast. Radiated animals, zoophytes, etc, also abound on the S. coasts, where some of them (the actinias) are used as food, and where the coral fisheries employ many persons. Generally the S. part of Europe possesses a greater variety of animals and species than the N., while the latter has them in greater numbers. - The inhabitants of Europe are the descendants of many different tribes, though the great majority belong to the Indo-European branch of the human family, and would seem to have sprung originally from a common stock. Without referring to the prehistoric migrations of the various races which are more or less distinctly traceable through philological and archaeological investigation, and which are treated in other articles, it is sufficient to indicate in this place the positions occupied by the different peoples at the period of the earliest written records; as it is from nations then already settled in the continent that the present population is almost entirely derived.

At the dawn of history, then, the W. and S. W. portions of Europe appear to have been in possession of the Celts and the Iberians. In the east and northeast the Ugrian (Mongolian) races (part of the Scythians of the ancients), of whom the Lapps, Finns, Samoyeds, and Magyars are the present remains, seem to have been the original inhabitants. At an early period the Slavs settled in the countries N. of the Black sea, and pressing N. E. gradually dispossessed the Ugrians of their country. Between the Ugrian and Slavic races of the east and the Celts of the west, the Germanic races are found at the earliest period of traditionary history pressing N. to conquer Scandinavia and S. against France and Italy. The southeast of Europe was probably settled from Asia and Africa; history finds in Greece and Italy two races who afterward became known as the Hellenic and Roman. The former was the first to develop in Europe a high state of culture, which, having been received by the conquering Roman race, was carried over all the countries around the Mediterranean. Having exhausted their power, the Roman conquerors were in their turn overthrown by the hardy, vigorous, and barbarous northern nations, who, after having embraced Christianity, in the course of many centuries developed a new and different civilization.

The Heruli, Ostrogoths, Longobards, and other Teutonic tribes, penetrated into and settled in Italy; Suevi, Visigoths, and Vandals in Spain; Franks and Burgundians in Gaul (France); Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Frisians in Britain. In Italy, Spain, and France, the conquerors were mostly assimilated to the nations whom they had found there, and by their admixture with them the present so-called Latin or Romanic race was produced. In Britain, the invaders drove the original inhabitants into Wales, Cornwall, and Cumberland, but were in their turn invaded by Normans and French in the 11th century; and the admixture of all these different elements, Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, and Norman, gradually produced the present English race. In Spain, the Teutonic tribes were overrun by Arabs in the 8th century, and did not recover possession of the whole country for nearly eight centuries. In the southeast the Hellenic race became during the middle ages largely mixed with the Slavic, while around the lower course of the Danube an intermixture of the ancient Dacians with a Roman colony produced the present Rouman or Wal-lach race.

Toward the end of the 9th century an Ugric race settled in the ancient Pannonia, where they remain to the present day under the names of Magyars and Szeklers in Hungary and Transylvania. Of the Tartars who under Genghis Khan entered Europe in the 13th century, and kept possession of a large portion of Russia till the end of the loth century, some descendants still remain in the south of that empire. The Osmanli, another branch of the Mongolian race, invaded Europe in the 14th century, and have ever since kept possession of the S. E. corner of the continent. By mingling freely with western nations they have lost many characteristic features of the Mongolian stock. - The population of Europe, which can now be estimated with accuracy, owing to the fact that official censuses are taken in all countries of the continent, amounted in 1872, according to the best authorities, to about 301,000,000, or about 80 to the square mile. Its distribution between the E. and W. portions is very unequal, the average population on a square mile being about 34 in Russia, which occupies the eastern half of the continent, and about 125 in the west.

With the exception of the three free cities in Germany, the canton of Geneva, and Malta, the greatest density of population prevails in Belgium (447); then follow in order the Netherlands (279), Great Britain and Ireland (263), Italy (234), Germany (197), France (177), Switzerland (167), Austria (149), Denmark (121), Portugal (117), Spain (85), Turkey (80), Greece (75), Russia (34), Sweden (27), and Norway (15). The average natural increase per annum of the population varies from 0.5 to 1.43 per cent. It is 1.43 per cent. in Great Britain, 1.16 in Prussia, 0.6 in all Germany, 0.59 in France. Ireland is the only country in which there has been of late a steady decrease of population. There were in Europe in 1872, in all, 67 cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants to each. The following table exhibits in round figures the comparative numbers of different races among the present population of Europe :

- For the classification of the languages, which almost closely correspond to the races and peoples enumerated in the table, see Aryan Languages, Ethnology, Slavic Race and Languages, and Turanian Race and Languages. - With the exception of China proper, the physical culture of no other part of the world is so much developed as that of Europe. Of the total area, 20 or 23 per cent. is non-productive, being either lakes, rivers, swamps, rocks, or occupied by buildings, or, like the extreme northern portion, unfit for human habitation; 36 per cent. is devoted to agriculture or cattle raising; and over 40 per cent. is in forests, of which Russia alone has more than 1,000,000 sq. m. The best cultivated countries are Great Britain, Germany, and France. The introduction of scientific methods of agriculture into these countries has tended steadily to increase the productive capacities of the soil. The average crop of grain to the acre is considerably larger than in the United States. The last trustworthy estimate of the number and value of domestic animals in Europe, as computed by Reden about 1860, gives the statistics as follows: Horses 27,000,000, valued at $775,470,000; horned cattle 80,000,000, value $864,720,000; sheep 191,000,000, value $687,600,000; asses 1,800,000, value $12,-600,000; goats 16,800,000, value $36,450,-000; hogs 37,500,000, value $108,240,000; mules 800,000, value $17,160,000; aggregate value of domestic animals, $2,502,210,000. The average yearly mineral production was estimated as follows by Kolb in 1871: gold, 53,000 lbs.; silver, 470,000 lbs.; iron, 177,000,000 cwt.; copper, 916,000 cwt.; lead, 4,510,000 cwt.; coal and brown coal, 3,450,000,000 cwt.; salt, 100,000,000 cwt.

The industrial production is largest in Great Britain, Belgium, France, and Germany. The total annual value of European commerce was estimated by Kolb in 1871 at $7,960,000,000; but he called attention to the fact that as all goods are counted in one country as imports and in another as exports, and many in a third also in the transit trade, the real value must be considerably less than half the apparent value above stated. - Christianity is almost exclusively the religion professed by the nations of Europe. The three principal denominations, Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Greek, correspond nearly to the three principal races, Latin, Teutonic, and Slavic. Geographically, the Roman Catholic is the dominant religion in the south and southwest, the Greek Catholic in the east and southeast, and the Protestant in the north and northwest. The number of Mohammedans is about 5,000,000 (3,500,000 in Turkey, the remainder in S. Russia), of Jews 5,000,000, of Buddhists about 10,000 (Mongolian nomadic tribes in S. Russia), and of pagans less than 1,000,000 (in the extreme north of Russia). - Popular education, measured by the proportion of schools and pupils to the entire population, is more general in the countries inhabited by the Teutonic race than among the Latin nations, and it holds the lowest place among the Slavic nations.

In Germany, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark the proportion of pupils to the population is 1 to 6; in Belgium, 1 to 8.8; in Great Britain, 1 to 9.1; in France, 1 to 10.1; in Holland, 1 to 10.9; in Austria, 1 to 11.2; in Spain, 1 to 14.3; in Italy, 1 to 15.1; in Russia, 1 to 66.6. - Among the nations of Europe almost every form of government exists, from that having at its head an almost absolute personal ruler, to the several systems of the most restricted monarchy and the republic. The nature of the government of each is indicated in the following table, which exhibits the states of Europe as constituted in 1874, with their areas and the number of their population; and shows also their division, made for purposes of diplomatic intercourse, into four ranks according to their power and general status - a distinction which, however, is now less strictly marked than formerly:

The present political systems of Europe are the product of nearly 20 centuries of strife and war among the different races inhabiting the continent. Though at certain periods of peace political philosophers and statesmen have endeavored to demonstrate the existence of a certain balance of power, which, by keeping in check the ambition of conquerors, should serve as a guarantee for the continuance of the actual state of things, there are in the whole history of Europe scarcely any two succeeding generations during which this idea has been realized. There has always been an almost continuous shifting of boundaries irrespective of nationalities, and there is not one of the great powers that does not hold in subjection portions of other nationalities. - According to Kolb (Handbuch der verglei-chenden Statistik, 1871), the yearly revenue of all the European states is $1,712,000,000, of which sum $764,000,000 belongs to the Teutonic states, $579,000,000 to the Latin or Romanic states, $292,000,000 to Russia, $73,-000,000 to Turkey and its dependencies, and $4,380,000 to Greece. The average of revenue is: in Great Britain $9 71 per head, in France $8 73, in Austria $5 26, in Germany $4 08, in Switzerland $4 12 (the lowest proportion in all Europe). The public debt of all European states amounted before 1850 to $9,264,240,000, of which sum over $6,000,-000,000 was the public debt of the five great powers.

But since then the extraordinary expenditure caused by the Crimean war of 1854-'6, the Franco-Sardinian war against Austria in 1859, the German-Italian war of 1866, and the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-'71, has increased the debt to near $17,136,000,000. The paper currency of Europe amounted about 1850 to $846,000,000, but within the last 20 years it has been so largely increased that its aggregate amount undoubtedly considerably exceeds $1,000,000,000. The amount of coin was approximately stated at $1,700,-000,000 in 1850. - The military establishments of Europe include in time of peace about 2,500,000 men, kept at an expense of more than $580,000,000. The proportion of the principal powers is: Germany, 420,000; Austria, 280,000; Great Britain (including the army in India), 250,000; France, 400,000; Russia, 600,000; Italy, 200,000; Spain, 200,-000; Turkey and dependencies, 160,000. The navies of Europe consist of over 3,000 vessels, carrying over 30,000 guns, with 200,000 men, at a yearly expenditure of over $125,000,000.

* Including the Canary islands.

+ Including the Azores and Madeira.