. Elementary physical geography;. were levelled off Australia and Europewould be not far from one thousand feet high; NorthAmerica and Africa about two thousand feet; and Asianearly three thousand feet. Africa would be probably alittle higher, and South America not quite so high asNorth America. If all the land above sea-level werethrown into the Atlantic Ocean it would not fill the latter. In a few localities there are depressions below surface of the Caspian Sea is eighty-four feet belowthat of the Mediterranean; the Dead Sea, situated in a gashnorth of the Red Sea, is thirteen
. Elementary physical geography;. were levelled off Australia and Europewould be not far from one thousand feet high; NorthAmerica and Africa about two thousand feet; and Asianearly three thousand feet. Africa would be probably alittle higher, and South America not quite so high asNorth America. If all the land above sea-level werethrown into the Atlantic Ocean it would not fill the latter. In a few localities there are depressions below surface of the Caspian Sea is eighty-four feet belowthat of the Mediterranean; the Dead Sea, situated in a gashnorth of the Red Sea, is thirteen hundred feet below sea-level. There are. two small depressions in North America,north of the Gulf of California; and several in Africa, southof the Atlas Mountains. These were former arms of thesea which were severed from the main body. Islands.—The islands have an aggregate area of aboutthree million square miles, or about one-seventeenth of theentire land surface of the earth. Most of them are situated 48 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 3£ii on the continental plateau, and are at no great distancefrom the continents to which they belong. Some are thehigher summits of partly submerged mountain ranges. They are parallel to themaritime ranges of thecontinent, or possibly,they extend from it. Findtwo such chains near theAmerican continent, twonear the Asian of this characterare usually called conti-nental islands; and thereason is obvious. Here and there are is-lands in mid-ocean, fardistant from any largebody of land. They arccalled oceanic stretch of the coast of Norway There i s n o d o u b t The coast, deeply indented with fjords, is bordered r ii • • r by many thousand rocky islets. regarding the Ollglll 01 some of them; they con-sist of the lava that has been ejected from volcanoes. Insome instances these islands are solitary, as Jan Mayenand St. Helena; in others they form a chain, as theHawaiian group. The numerous islands in the Pacific Ocean form
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