Spain

We will treat of these in order.

Mountain Chains.

But first we must speak of the various mountain systems and river basins of Spain, without which it is impossible to understand either the physical conditions of the country, or the social and political state of the various populations which has resulted from them.

First, on the north is the chain of the Pyrenees, a continuation of the great Alpine system of Central Europe, stretching from Cape Creuz, 3 deg. 19' E., to the Bay of Biscay, 2 deg. 12' W., a distance of 320 miles, and prolonging itself westward in lower chains of different denominations until it finally sinks into the Atlantic at Cape Finisterre. The culminating points of the Pyrenees are towards the centre of the chain, in Mounts Maladetta, 11,150 feet, and the Pic de Posets and the Mount Perdu, each about 11,000 feet, whence the heights gradually descend, on the east to the Mediterranean and on the