A very elevated and continuous mountain region extends in a broad belt along the north-west of Africa, from the promontory of Gher, on the Atlantic, to the Gulf of Sidra, in the Mediterranean, enclosing all the high lands of Morocco, Algiers, and Tunis. It is bounded by the Atlantic and Mediterranean, and insulated from the rest of Africa by the desert of Sahara. This mountain system consists of three parts. The chain of the Greater Atlas, which is farthest inland, extends from Cape Gher, on the Atlantic, to the Lesser Syrtis; and, in Morocco, forms a knot of mountains 15,000 feet high, covered with perpetual snow. The Lesser Atlas begins at Cape Spartel (the ancient Cape Cotes) opposite to Gibraltar, and keeps parallel to the Mediterranean till it attains the Gharian range in Tripoli, the last and lowest of the Little Atlas, which runs due east in a uniformly diminishing line till it vanishes in the plain of the Great Syrtis. That long, rugged, but lower chain of parallel ridges and groups which forms the bold coasts of the Straits of Gibraltar and the Mediterranean, is only a portion of the Lesser Atlas, which rises above it majestically, covered with snow. The flanks of the mountains are generally clothed with forests, but their summit is one uninterrupted line of bare inaccessible rocks, and they are rent by fissures frequently not more than a few feet wide—a peculiar feature of the whole system. The Middle Atlas, lying between the two great chains, consists of a table-land, rich in valleys and rivers, which rises in successive terraces to the foot of the Greater Atlas, separated by ridges of hills parallel to it. This wide and extensive region has a delightful climate, abounds in magnificent forests, and the valleys are full of vitality. The crest of the Atlas is of granite and crystalline strata; their flanks and lower ranges are sandstone and limestone, on which the tertiary strata rest. The Spanish peninsula consists chiefly of a table-land traversed by parallel ranges of mountains, and is surrounded by the sea, except where it is separated from France by the Pyrenees, which extend from the Mediterranean to the Bay of Biscay, but are continued by the Cantabrian chain to Cape Finisterre on the Atlantic. The Pyrenean chain is of moderate height at its extremities, but its summit maintains a waving line, whose mean altitude is 7990 feet; it rises to a greater height on the east; its highest point is the Malahite or Nethou, 11,170 feet above the sea. The snow lies deep on these mountains during the greater part of the year, and is perpetual on the highest parts; but the glaciers, which are chiefly on the northern side, are neither so numerous nor so large as in the Alps.