broken by few islands. The actual position of sea-level lies so near the summit of the crust-heap that the varied relief of the upperThe continents. portion leads to the formation of a complicated coast-line and a great number of detached portions of land. The hydrosphere is, in fact, continuous, and the land is all in insular masses: the largest is the Old World of Europe, Asia and Africa; the next in size, America; the third, possibly, Antarctica; the fourth, Australia; the fifth, Greenland. After this there is a considerable gap before New Guinea, Borneo, Madagascar, Sumatra and the vast multitude of smaller islands descending in size by regular gradations to mere rocks. The contrast between island and mainland was natural enough in the days before the discovery of Australia, and the mainland of the Old World was traditionally divided into three continents. These “continents,” “parts of the earth,” or “quarters of the globe,” proved to be convenient divisions; America was added as a fourth, and subsequently divided into two, while Australia on its discovery was classed sometimes as a new continent, sometimes merely as an island, sometimes compromisingly as an island-continent, according to individual opinion. The discovery of the insularity of Greenland might again give rise to the argument as to the distinction between island and continent. Although the name of continent was not applied to large portions of land for any physical reasons, it so happens that there is a certain physical similarity or homology between them which is not shared by the smaller islands or peninsulas.
The typical continental form is triangular as regards its sea-level outline. The relief of the surface typically includes a central plain, sometimes dipping below sea-level, bounded by lateral highlands or mountain ranges, loftier on one side than on the other, the higher enclosing a plateau shut in byHomology of continents. mountains. South America and North America follow this type most closely; Eurasia (the land mass of Europe and Asia) comes next, while Africa and Australia are farther removed from the type, and the structure of Antarctica and Greenland is unknown.
If the continuous, unbroken, horizontal extent of land in a continent is termed its trunk,[1] and the portions cut up by inlets or channels of the sea into islands and peninsulas the limbs, it is possible to compare the continents in an instructive manner.
The following table is from the statistics of Professor H. Wagner,[2] his metric measurements being transposed into British units:
| Area total mil. sq. m. |
Mean height, feet. |
Area trunk, mil. sq. m. |
Area peninsulas, mil. sq. m. |
Area islands, mil. sq. m. |
Area limbs, mil. sq. m. |
Area limbs, per cent. | |
| Old World | 35.80 | 2360 | |||||
| New World | 16.20 | 2230 | |||||
| Eurasia | 20.85 | 2620 | 15.42 | 4.09 | 1.34 | 5.43 | 26 |
| Africa | 11.46 | 2130 | 11.22 | .. | 0.24 | 0.24 | 2.1 |
| North America | 9.26 | 2300 | 6.92 | 0.78 | 1.56 | 2.34 | 25 |
| South America | 6.84 | 1970 | 6.76 | 0.02 | 0.06 | 0.08 | 1.1 |
| Australia | 3.43 | 1310 | 2.77 | 0.16 | 0.50 | 0.66 | 19 |
| Asia | 17.02 | 3120 | 12.93 | 3.05 | 1.04 | 4.09 | 24 |
| Europe | 3.83 | 980 | 2.49 | 1.04 | 0.30 | 1.34 | 35 |
The usual classification of islands is into continental and oceanic. The former class includes all those which rise from the continental shelf, or show evidence in the character of their rocks of having at one time been continuous with a neighbouring continent. The latter rise abruptly from the oceanic abysses.Islands. Oceanic islands are divided according to their geological character into volcanic islands and those of organic origin, including coral islands. More elaborate subdivisions according to structure, origin and position have been proposed.[3] In some cases a piece of land is only an island at high water, and by imperceptible gradation the form passes into a peninsula. The typical peninsula is connected with the mainland by a relatively narrow isthmus; the name is, however, extended to any limb projecting from the trunk of the mainland, even when, as in the Indian peninsula, it is connected by its widest part.
Small peninsulas are known as promontories or headlands, and the extremity as a cape. The opposite form, an inlet of the sea, is known when wide as a gulf, bay or bight, according to size and degree of inflection, or as a fjord or ria when long and narrow. It is convenient to employ a specific name for aCoasts. projection of a coast-line less pronounced than a peninsula, and for an inlet less pronounced than a bay or bight; outcurve and incurve may serve the turn. The varieties of coast-lines were reduced to an exact classification by Richthofen, who grouped them according to the height and slope of the land into cliff-coasts (Steilküsten)—narrow beach coasts with cliffs, wide beach coasts with cliffs, and low coasts, subdividing each group according as the coast-line runs parallel to or crosses the line of strike of the mountains, or is not related to mountain structure. A further subdivision depends on the character of the inter-relation of land and sea along the shore producing such types as a fjord-coast, ria-coast or lagoon-coast. This extremely elaborate subdivision may be reduced, as Wagner points out, to three types—the continental coast where the sea comes up to the solid rock-material of the land; the marine coast, which is formed entirely of soft material sorted out by the sea; and the composite coast, in which both forms are combined.
On large-scale maps it is necessary to show two coast-lines, one for the highest, the other for the lowest tide; but in small-scale maps a single line is usually wider than is required to represent the whole breadth of the inter-tidal zone. The measurement of a coast-line is difficult, becauseCoast-lines. the length will necessarily be greater when measured on a large-scale map where minute irregularities can be taken into account. It is usual to distinguish between the general coast-line measured from point to point of the headlands disregarding the smaller bays, and the detailed coast-line which takes account of every inflection shown by the map employed, and follows up river entrances to the point where tidal action ceases. The ratio between these two coast-lines represents the “coastal development” of any region.
While the forms of the sea-bed are not yet sufficiently well known to admit of exact classification, they are recognized to be as a rule distinct from the forms of the land, and the importance of using a distinctive terminology is felt. Efforts have been made to arrive at a definite international agreementSubmarine forms. on this subject, and certain terms suggested by a committee were adopted by the Eighth International Geographical Congress at New York in 1904.[4] The forms of the ocean floor include the “shelf,” or shallow sea margin, the “depression,” a general term applied to all submarine hollows, and the “elevation.” A depression when of great extent is termed a “basin,” when it is of a more or less round form with approximately equal diameters, a “trough” when it is wide and elongated with gently sloping borders, and a “trench” when narrow and elongated with steeply sloping borders, one of which rises higher than the other. The extension of a trough or basin penetrating the land or an elevation is termed an “embayment” when wide, and a “gully” when long and narrow; and the deepest part of a depression is termed a “deep.” A depression of small extent when steep-sided is termed a “caldron,” and a long narrow depression crossing a part of the continental border is termed a “furrow.” An elevation of great extent which rises at a very gentle angle from a surrounding depression is termed a “rise,” one which is relatively narrow and steep-sided a “ridge,” and one which is approximately equal in length and breadth but steep-sided a “plateau,” whether it springs direct from a depression or from a rise. An elevation of small extent is distinguished as a “dome” when it is more than 100 fathoms from the surface, a “bank” when it is nearer the surface than 100 fathoms but deeper than 6 fathoms, and a “shoal” when it comes within 6 fathoms of the surface and so becomes a serious danger to shipping. The highest point of an elevation is termed a “height,” if it does not form an island or one of the minor forms.
The forms of the dry land are of infinite variety, and have been studied in great detail.[5] From the descriptive or topographical point of view, geometrical form alone should be considered; but the origin and geological structure of land forms must in many cases be taken into account Land forms. when dealing with the function they exercise in the control of mobile distributions. The geographers who have hitherto given most attention to the forms of the land have been trained as geologists, and consequently there is a general tendency to make origin or structure the basis of classification rather than form alone.
The fundamental form-elements may be reduced to the six proposed by Professor Penck as the basis of his double system of classification by form and origin.[6] These may be looked upon as being all derived by various modifications or arrangements of the single form-unit, the slope or inclinedThe six elementary land forms. plane surface. No one form occurs alone, but always grouped together with others in various ways to make up districts, regions and lands of distinctive characters. The form-elements are:
- ↑ Rumpf, in German, the language in which this distinction was first made.
- ↑ Lehrbuch der Geographie (Hanover and Leipzig, 1900), Bd. i. S. 245, 249.
- ↑ See, for example, F. G. Hahn’s Insel-Studien (Leipzig, 1883).
- ↑ See Geographical Journal, xxii. (1903) pp. 191–194.
- ↑ The most important works on the classification of land forms are F. von Richthofen, Führer für Forschungsreisende (Berlin, 1886); G. de la Noë and E. de Margerie, Les Formes du terrain (Paris, 1888); and above all A. Penck, Morphologie der Erdoberfläche (2 vols., Stuttgart, 1894). Compare also A. de Lapparent, Leçons de géographie physique (2nd ed., Paris, 1898), and W. M. Davis, Physical Geography (Boston, 1899).
- ↑ “Geomorphologie als genetische Wissenschaft,” in Report of Sixth International Geog. Congress (London, 1895), p. 735 (English Abstract, p. 748).
