The higher Alps, which form the western crest of the elevated zone, may be said to begin at the Cape della Melle on the Gulf of Genoa, and bend round by the west and north to Mont Blanc; then turning E.N.E. they run through the Grisons and Tyrol to the Great Glockner, in 40° 7ʹ N. lat., and 12° 43ʹ E. long., where the higher Alps terminate a course 420 miles long. All this chain is lofty; much of it is above the line of perpetual congelation; the most elevated part lies between the Col de la Seigne, on the western shoulder of Mont Blanc, and the Simplon. The highest mountains in Europe are comprised within this space, not more than 60 miles long, where Mont Blanc, the highest of all, has an absolute elevation of 15,759·8 feet. The central ridge of the higher Alps is jagged with peaks, pyramids, and needles of bare and almost perpendicular rock, rising from fields of perpetual snow and rivers of ice to an elevation of 14,000 feet. Many parallel chains and groups, alike rugged and snowy, press on the principal crest, and send their flanks far into the lower grounds. Innumerable secondary branches, hardly lower than the main crest, diverge from it in various directions; of these, the chain of the Bernese Alps is the highest and most extensive. It breaks off at the St. Gothard, in a line parallel to the principal chain, separates the Valais from the Canton of Berne, and with its ramifications forms one of the most remarkable groups of mountain scenery in Europe. Its endless maze of sharp ridges and bare peaks, mixed with gigantic masses of pure snow, fading coldly serene into the blue horizon, present a scene of sublime quiet and repose, unbroken but by the avalanche or the thunder. At the Great Glockner the range of the Alps, hitherto undivided, splits into two branches, the Noric and Carnic Alps: the latter is the continuation of the chief stem. Never rising to the height of perpetual snow, it separates the Tyrol and Upper Carinthia from the Venetian States, and, taking the name of the Julian Alps at Mont Terglou, runs east till it joins the Eastern Alps, or Balkan, under the 18th meridian. Offsets from this chain cover all the neighbouring countries. It is difficult to estimate the width of the Alpine chain: that of the higher Alps is about 100 miles; it increases to 150 east of the Grisons, and amounts to 200 between the 15th and 16th meridians, but is not more than 80 at its junction with the Balkan. The Stelvio, 9174 feet above the sea, is the highest carriage-pass in these mountains. That of St. Gothard goes directly over the crest of the Alps. Passes very rarely go over the summit of a mountain; they generally cross the watershed, ascending by the valley of a torrent, and descending by a similar path on the other side. The frequent occurrence of extensive deep lakes is a peculiar feature in European mountains, rarely to be met with in the Asiatic system, except in the Altaï and on the elevated plains.