Читать книгу The Circle of Knowledge: A Classified, Simplified, Visualized Book of Answers - Various - Страница 82

Valleys among mountains owe their existence primarily to folds or fissures in the Earth’s crust, produced in the upheaving of the ranges; but they are subsequently deepened, widened and otherwise changed in form and extent, by the action of rains and frosts, and the streams to which they furnish a pathway. Most of the Alpine lakes, celebrated for their picturesque beauty, occupy deep basins at the outlet of transverse valleys.

Valleys in plains and plateaus are mainly, if not entirely, the result of the erosion, or wear of the surface, by running water.

Little rills, formed by the rains or issuing from springs, set out on their course down the slope of the ground, each wearing its small furrow in the surface. Uniting they form a rivulet which wears a broader and deeper channel; and the rivulets in turn combining, form rivers which produce still greater effects.

The great basin of the Mississippi for example, is one grand central valley, cut by the main stream in the line of lowest level, towards which the valleys of the Missouri, the Arkansas, the Ohio, and a multitude of smaller streams, all converge.

CELEBRATED MOUNTAIN PEAKS THAT STAND AS THE EARTH’S GREATEST SENTINELS

1. Mount Everest, the loftiest mountain in the world, is situated in Nepal, India, and rises to an ascertained height of 29,000 feet—almost six miles. It was named for Sir George Everest, an English engineer, and outline Surveyor-General of India. Everest is only one of numerous gigantic peaks of the Himalayas—often called the “Roof of the World”—and is apparently guarded against all attempts at ascent by a rampart of lofty pinnacles. It is best viewed from a point near Darjeeling, India, one hundred and twenty miles distant. From this point travelers are enthralled with the glistening peak of mountain piles as nowhere else on earth. Though a thousand times described, the view is so surpassingly sublime that its full glory can never be depicted in words.

2. Mont Blanc (mòn-blon-g) is the highest mountain in Europe, and of the Alps. It is located between Great and Little St. Bernard passes, on the frontier of France, Switzerland and Italy; and is best seen and approached from the village of Chamounix (shä-mo-nē´), France. It was first ascended in 1786, but frequently since, and, in 1893, an observatory was built on its summit. The Mont Blanc chain is famous for glaciers. Many great poets have described the majesty of Mont Blanc, among them, Goethe, Victor Hugo, Byron, Shelley, Wordsworth, and Coleridge.

3. The Matterhorn, or Mount Cervin, a splendid mountain obelisk, towers above Zermatt, Switzerland, on the Italian border. The eastern side seems almost vertical, and its ascent is very difficult; hence its name which is due to the formation of the rocky, horn-shaped peak. The loss of life attending its ascent has given the Matterhorn the grim name “Fatal Mountain.”

4. Monte Rosa (mŏn´te rō´sa), “rosy mountain,” is next to Mont Blanc, the highest Alpine peak. It is the border between Italy and Switzerland, sixty miles north of Turin, Switzerland. Unlike the Matterhorn, Monte Rosa is easy of ascent and is frequently climbed by ladies. Its name refers to the glaciers which abound and reflect beautiful colors.

5. Jungfrau (yung´frau), “virgin,” is one of the Bernese Alps, Switzerland, thirteen miles from Interlaken. It is so named from the pure whiteness of its snowclad peak. A wonderful mountain railway now reaches to the summit, most of the line being through tunnels. Jungfrau is 13,670 feet high.

6. Mount Elburz is one of the loftiest and most impressive of all the Caucasian mountains. It is an extinct volcano with two peaks, the western peak 18,470 feet above sea-level, and the other 18,347 feet. It is covered with glaciers, and constitutes a watershed which divides Asia from Europe. The Caucasus gave its name to that great branch of the human race that has ruled the world for many generations.

7. Mount Sinai (si´nā or -nī), famous as the sacred mountain on which Moses received the Ten Commandments, is an individual peak in a vast rocky mass that almost fills the peninsula of Sinai between the Gulf of Suez and Gulf of Akaba. It is named from Sin, the Babylonian moon-god. At its foot, in a ravine, is the monastery of St. Catherine, founded by the Emperor Justinian; a short distance from it the Chapel of St. Elias (Elijah); while on its summit is a little pilgrim church. Its height is 8,593 feet.

8. Pike’s Peak. This famous mountain is six miles from Colorado Springs, Colorado, and may be ascended by a cog railway. It is one of the best-known summits of the Rocky Mountains, and rears its snowy crest to a height of 14,134 feet. On its top is one of the highest weather stations in the world. The view from the observatory is superb, embracing thousands of square miles of mountain and plain.

9. Mount St. Elias, on the Alaskan side of the Canadian frontier, was long considered the highest peak in North America. It is a volcanic mountain, stands in a wild, inaccessible region, and is clothed almost from base to summit with eternal snow. Besides, there are huge glaciers, impassable precipices and yawning chasms. Its height is 18,020 feet. It was ascended by the Duke of the Abruzzi in 1897.

10. Mount Assiniboine (as-sin´i-boin) is frequently called the “Matterhorn of the Canadian Rockies”. It is 11,860 feet in height, and is located near the boundary of British Columbia and Alberta, about twenty miles south of Banff, in one of the most beautiful scenic regions in America. In the immediate vicinity there are geysers, caves, waterfalls, numerous lakes, natural bridges, and glaciers.

11. Mount Popocatepetl (pō-pō-kă-tā-pet´l) is one of the giant volcanic peaks standing guard over Mexico City. Its summit is perpetually covered with snow, but it may be ascended from Popo Park, the terminal of the railway which climbs its slope, to a height of 8,000 feet. The peak itself is 17,887 feet, at the apex of which is a huge crater sheathed with ice, from which clouds of vapor are continually ascending. No great eruption, however, has taken place since 1540. The most imposing spectacle of all from the summit is the remarkable formation of clouds below.

12. Mount Salcantay, one of the most beautiful peaks of the Andes, in Peru, is 21,000 feet in height. Its grandeur is enhanced by the presence of glaciers and the enveloping clouds. It rises to a sharp point with its sides covered with snow and ice, and lifts its head magnificently thousands of feet higher than the surrounding mountains. It has been recently explored by the Yale University expedition.

13. Mount Robson, the highest point in the Canadian Rockies, reaches an elevation of 13,700 feet. It is on the border between Alberta and British Columbia, one of the remarkable “show places” of the Canadian Rockies. All around it is the finest of scenery—huge mountains, snow-crested peaks, rushing rivers that swirl and foam, mysterious canyons and earth-strewn boulders.

14. Mount Rainier (rā´ner) an isolated mountain of the Cascade Range, forty miles southeast of Tacoma, Washington, is an extinct volcano, 15,529 feet in height. There are still two craters at the summit which give off heat and sulphurous fumes. Thick forests cover the lower region of the mountain, while higher up there are fourteen glaciers. It is difficult of ascent, though frequently made. A bridle path leads to a point over 7,000 feet in elevation from which a magnificent view of several of the glaciers may be had.

Mount Ararat, famed as the mountain where Noah’s ark landed after the flood, as recorded in Genesis, is in the Turkish province of Armenia. Ararat is really a twin mountain, the two peaks of which are about seven miles apart, with an elevation of about 17,000 and 13,000 feet, respectively. They rise above a beautiful alluvial plain, and quite naturally the higher peak—Great Ararat—is the one made historically immortal as the motherland of the human race. From their isolation and bareness the two peaks are very impressive, and it is little wonder that Armenia regards these mountain tops as a crown of glory and all other lands as her daughters. Within her borders, too, she gives rise to the beautiful rivers Euphrates, Tigris, Pison, Araxes, and many others. The first modern ascent of the mountain was made in 1829, though often since.