one of the four quarters of the world. This is considerably the smallest of the four grand divisions of the terraqueous globe. Its length, from east to west, according to the most authentic accounts, measures about 3300 miles British measure, and its breadth 2350. The continental part of it is bounded on the south by the Mediterranean sea, on the west by the Atlantic ocean, comprehending the most distant isle of Europe, viz. that of Iceland, for Greenland is now considered as constituting a part of North America. Many geographers of eminence have given the Azores to Europe, from their greater proximity to Portugal than to any other continental country, and have considered the Madeiras as a constituent part of Africa for a similar reason. Europe is bounded on the north by the Arctic ocean and the new land; while its eastern limits appear to be more uncertain in the estimation of geographers. It appears evident, however, that a very natural limit might be ascertained by the river Oufa, the Kama, and the Volga, which would make its division extremely natural to the town of Sarepta; it requiring only an imaginary line of very small extent from that place to the river Don. The superficies of Europe, including the Azores, Iceland, &c. is about 3,432,000 miles.

The western and southern parts of Europe anciently consisted of the people called Celts; the Fins occupied the north-east; and the Laplanders, a people equally diminutive with the Samoeds of Asia, possessed its remotest parts toward the north, who rendered their own language less uncouth and barbarous by assimilating it to that of the Fins. The Goths from Asia seem to have driven those ancient inhabitants towards the east and north, whose descendants occupy the greater part of Europe. From the Slavonic tribes, who also came from Asia, the Poles, Russians, &c. were descended. These were accompanied by the Heruli, who made use of what is now denominated the Lettic speech, to be met with in Courland, Livonia, Lithuania, Prussia, and Samogitia. Samogitia, and nearly allied to the Slavonic language, according to the account of Tooke in his view of Russia. At an early period the colony of Iberi and northern Mauritani came over into Spain; and at a later period both the Hungarians and Turks emigrated from Asia.

Notwithstanding the high character of d'Anville as a geographer, we believe that his opinion respecting the geographical knowledge of the ancients is greatly exaggerated. It appears evident that nothing more of Scandinavia was known to the ancients than the southern part as far as the lakes of Weter and Wenner. It is no doubt true that the Romans, by means of their shipping, even in the imperfect state of navigation at that period, traversed the southern shores of the Baltic, as far as to the river Rubo, ascertaining the names of various tribes along that coast; but if the maps of Ptolemy are admitted as decisive proofs in this case, it is certain that they were wholly unacquainted with the interior of Germany; and consequently the tribes of which he makes mention, may rather be considered as having dwelt along the northern shores of the Baltic, or the southern parts on the left of the Danube. They were no doubt acquainted with the Carpathian mountains; but their knowledge of Europe towards the north-east was undoubtedly circumscribed by the 50th or 52nd degree of north latitude.

In many barbarous languages, the same word was often used indiscriminately either for a mountain or a forest, the want of attention to which has frequently been the prolific source of error, and placed mountains of the greatest consequence where the hand of nature had planted trees. It has been supposed that the Riphean mountains were the Uralian chain, of which the ancients knew nothing, instead of a forest of prodigious extent from east to west. It is also well known that the Venedici Montes of Ptolemy have no existence upon earth, and therefore must once have been a very extensive forest with which the moderns are unacquainted, and perhaps no traces of it are now anywhere to be met with.

Christianity is the predominant religion all over Europe, except in Turkey; and even there it has been computed, that about one-half of the inhabitants are members of the Greek church. The Christian religion has always been accompanied in its progress with the diffusion of knowledge, the extension of industry, and the civilization of manners, whereas the barbarous tribes in the northern parts of Europe advanced by very slow degrees, and the Scandinavians continued in a state of pagan ignorance till the eleventh century. Some tribes of Slavonia to the south of the Baltic, were not converted to Christianity till the thirteenth century, and of course were for many ages in a state little superior to brutality; and the people of Lapland were not converted to the Christian faith till about a century ago, by means of missionaries sent from Denmark. The people of Europe, as to matters of religion, are divided into catholics and protestants, the former being chiefly confined to the southern parts of it, where the imagination requires the gratifications arising from external pomp and parade; and the latter in the northern parts of it, the simplicity of which is much better calculated to please the predominant exercise of the judgment. The Christian religion being thus diffused all over Europe, that division of the globe has hence become a kind of republic in respect of literature, every scientific invention and discovery being transmitted from one portion of it to another with the utmost dispatch. For this reason Europe has been sometimes compared to ancient Greece, and it is to be hoped that Russia will never prove another Macedon.

The greater part of this quarter of the globe lies within the northern temperate zone, a distinction which is now nearly annihilated by the interesting discoveries of modern geography. Climate is found to depend very frequently on causes which are purely local, since the Alps, in a southern latitude, exhibit mountains of ice which are not known even in Lapland, while the torrid zone is plentifully supplied with water and habitations, and for any thing which can be determined to the contrary, it may contain mountains which are covered with snow. As it is happily delivered from those intense heats which are peculiar to Asia and Africa, the inhabitants are in general blessed with greater bodily vigour and intellectual strength.

One of the most striking features of Europe in a general point of view is its inland seas, which give it a decided superiority over the other more extensive divisions of the earth, and contribute powerfully to the extension of its industry, commerce, and civilization. If such blessings had been enjoyed by Africa, it is more than probable that the consequences of her industry would have been diffused far and wide. Of these inland seas, the Mediterranean holds the most distinguished place, as the centre of civilization both to the ancient and modern inhabitants of Europe. It is about 2000 miles in length to its farthest extremity in Syria, but the maps of antiquity make it 300 more. The gulfs of Venice and the Archipelago open on its northern side, formerly denominated the Adriatic and Egean seas, from the last of which there is a communication with the sea of Marmora, or the Propontis, by means of the Hellespont; and the strait of Constantinople leads into the Black sea, to the north of which is the sea of Azof, (Palus Maeotis), or utmost maritime boundary of Europe in that direction. This vast expanse of water is beautifully ornamented with numerous islands and an opulent sea coast, exhibiting delightful specimens of almost every thing in nature which is sublime and beautiful. Tides cannot be perceived except in straits of very small dimensions, although naturalists have observed, that a current sets along the shores of Italy from west to east, while its direction is from east to west towards the coast of Africa. In the gulf of Venice the current runs along Dalmatia in a north-west direction, and returns by the opposite shore of Italy. There is abundance of fish to be met with in the Mediterranean, some of which are but rarely to be found in more northern latitudes. This sea in particular abounds with coral, now certainly known to be the production of marine insects. This imaginary plant is tri-coloured, composed of red, vermillion and white, and does not exceed eleven inches in height. It is hard in the sea, and in this respect undergoes not the smallest change by exposure to the air; and the nets made use of for procuring it, measure from 60 to 125 feet. From the colour of its rocks or perilous navigation, the Black sea is said to have derived its name. As the sea of Azof almost always exhibits a muddy appearance, it was for that reason denominated Palus by the ancients, and it is united to the Euxine or Black sea by the strait of Caffa.

The next inland sea of Europe is the Baltic, to which the Germans have given the name of the Eastern sea, which accounts for the people denominated Easterlings in the history of England, who undoubtedly came from the shores of the Baltic. It opens from the German sea by a gulf trending north-east, known by the name of the Skager Rack, from whence it passes southward in the Cattgat, to the south-east of which we meet with the sound of Elsinore, where vessels become in some degree tributary to the king of Denmark. It is afterwards divided into two branches of great extent, called the gulfs of Bothnia and Finland, both of which are covered with ice for nearly five months in the year. The greatest depth of the Baltic is said not to exceed 50 fathoms; and according to the opinion of naturalists its extent suffers a diminution of four feet every century. It has been affirmed that its waters do not contain above one-thirtieth of salt, while other sea-waters frequently contain one-tenth, which has been ascribed to the vast quantity of ice; and when the north wind blows, these waters, it is also said, may be employed for the purposes of domestic economy. There are no tides in the Baltic, and but very few fish.

The White sea, in the northern parts of Russia, is the last inland sea of Europe, which was well known to the English in particular, before the commerce of Archangel was transferred to Petersburgh. It went by the name of Quen sea in the reign of Alfred the Great; and the writers of Iceland called it the sea of Ganwick, on the shores of which stood their Biarmia. There are a number of islands in the White sea, but the accounts which geographers have hitherto given us, are neither circumstantial nor satisfactory.

The German sea deserves to be mentioned among the other maritime divisions of Europe, which has received the appellation because it waters the western shores of ancient Germany, from the Rhine to the farthest boundary of Jutland. It may properly be regarded as constituting a part of the Atlantic ocean, ending at the straits of Dover, from whence the British channel extends to the west. Another extensive inlet of the Atlantic is the bay of Biscay; for the British channel is rather to be considered as the wide frith of the Severn. St George's channel lies on the south between Great Britain and Ireland, and the Irish sea leading to the North channel, is situated in the centre. What the ancients called the Deucaliedon sea lies to the north of Scotland, which was likewise denominated the Sarmatian, as extending throughout the Baltic.

The Arctic ocean lies to the north of Europe, the dismal receptacle of countless miles of ice, piled up in mountains, the hoary majesty of which, while it captivates the eye, can scarcely fail to strike terror into the heart of the mariner. Yet from those dreary regions, which at first appear only as a prodigious waste in the works of creation, the benevolent Parent of the universe diffuses innumerable millions of herrings for the use of man. This is worthy of the divine being whose goodness is whispered to us in every breeze, which glows in the starry firmament of heaven, and is diffused through the whole creation.

The Goodwin sands in the vicinity of the Kentish coast, are as dangerous to the mariner as uninviting to the fisher; but excellent fish are to be found on many banks on the coast of Holland, among which may be ranked the cod, the soal, and the plaice. What are called the Silverpits of the mariners, lying between the Dogger and Well bank, supply the London market with cod, which discovers a predilection for the deep waters in the vicinity of the banks. The Hornriff, a narrow strip extending to Jutland, is situated towards the north east of the Dogger bank. The Juttsriff extends from the mouth of the Baltic to the German sea, in the form of a crescent.

The Mar bank takes its rise opposite to Berwick, which is little more than 15 miles in length. To the eastward of this lies the Long Forties, extending from Buchanness to Newcastle, and from between 40 and 100 miles from the shore; and a bank reaches across the German sea towards Juttsriff, from the coast of Buchan. It was thought necessary, in this concise account of Europe, to mention some of the most considerable banks or comparative shoals, which have often been regarded as the summits of lofty mountains beneath the surface of the deep; and which, as the haunts of fishes of different species, have arrested the attention of national industry.

A description of the principal rivers of Europe will be given in our account of the countries through which they respectively flow. The greater part of the Wolga is considered as belonging to Europe; the next highly celebrated river is the Danube, after which we may rank the Nieper, the Rhine, and the Elbe. The Alps are the loftiest mountains; next the Pyrenees; and that vast ridge by which Norway is divided from Sweden. The Carpathian mountains, the chain called Eminch, and the Apennines, are of inferior magnitude.

The European states and kingdoms may properly be divided into three classes. 1. Despotic monarchies, of which Russia and Turkey may serve as specimens. 2. Absolute monarchies, such as Spain and Denmark. And 3. Those of a limited nature, as the Germanic empire, and the kingdom of Great Britain. Since the peace in 1815, constitutions formed on the model of that of England have been adopted by Bavaria, Wurtemberg, Baden, Hesse Darmstadt, and some other of the smaller states. Spain and Portugal have established governments on a more democratic plan. The two old commercial aristocracies of Venice and Genoa have been suppressed.

It is customary with some geographers to divide the constituent parts of Europe into first, second, and third orders, according to their political importance; the first order including the united kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, France, Russia, the Austrian dominions, Prussia, Spain, Turkey. In the second order stand the United Provinces, Denmark, Sweden, Portugal, and Switzerland; and the chief states of Germany and Italy constitute the third, a detailed account of which our readers will find in this work under their proper names. For a detailed account of the recent changes in this quarter of the globe, see the article EUROPE in the Supplement.