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Lakes are most numerous in the central and northern portions of Asia, Europe and North America. The southern continents, except Africa, have comparatively few.

Asia is pre-eminently the continent of salt lakes. They occur in countless numbers, both in the steppes north of the Caspian and Aral, and in all the interior plateaus. Lakes of fresh water are also found among the Altai Mountains and adjacent chains. Lake Baikal, one of these, is the largest mountain lake known, being nearly 500 miles long.

Europe. The most characteristic and celebrated lakes are those which adorn the Alps of Switzerland and Scandinavia, and the less lofty mountain chains of the British Isles. But the largest lakes are found in the low lands and slight swells which surround the Baltic Sea, in western Russia and Sweden. Lakes Ladoga and Onega in Russia, and Wener and Wetter in Sweden, are the largest in Europe.

North America is peculiarly rich in great lakes. No continent presents a more remarkable series than that which stretches from northwest to southeast, through the central plains, along the line of contact of the oldest geological formations of the continent. This series includes Great Bear and Great Slave lakes, Athabasca and Winnipeg, and the five great lakes of the St. Lawrence, with many of less area.

Innumerable small lakes are scattered throughout the middle portions of the central plain, and the northern and less regular part of the Appalachian mountain region; but south of the parallel of Lake Erie there is an almost entire absence of lakes, whether large or small.