Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1892-05-26
BOUNDARY OF EUROPE.
Where Docs Asia Begin and Europe
End?

End:
For many years geographers have
not agreed as to the natural boundary
between Europe and Asia Various
writer's, worthy of attention, have con-
sidered the question with widely differ
ing results; and that the question is
not settled yet is shown in the latest
edition OF that authoritative publica-
ton, Die Berekerung der Erde, which
gives three determinations of the total
area OF Europe, according as one divid-
ing line or another is accepted as the
Esropesn-Asiaticb boundary.
school children. are usually taught
that the Ural mountains are the divid-
Ing line between eastern Europe and
western Asia This may pass as a
rough definition of that boundary,
though the Ural mountains extend
neither TO the ice sea in the north nor
to the Caspian in the south: nor are the
Urals accepted by some geographers for
more than half Of their extent as the
proper boundary. Young students,
however, should not be confused by
the disputes. of geographers; but how
does 1t happen that in some OF the best
aliases, like ''Andree's Hand-Atlas,"
little attention is paid to the Urals as
Asia?
1t Is because some geographers prefer
to follow the political rather than the
natural boundaries For administrative
purposes Russia has included in the
European governments of Perm, Ufa
and Orenburg large region east of the
Urals, aud it has also placed the coun-
try Of the Ural Cossacks, west of the
mountains and
der the governor-generalship of Turk
estan: and in some OF the best aliases the
boundary between Europe and Asia is
| made to conform to these political acct
dents, though the best authorities in
Russia discountenance the idea. and say
the boundary is liable to frequent
| fluctuations if it must needs coincide
with the limits Of administrative dis
! tricts-
| Most geographers now accept the
eastern boundary Of Europe as it is laid
I down on the maps OF the Russian gov
e 'nrnent and rs it has been described by
Gen Strelbitsl>y, the best Russian au-
! sority. This boundary follows the
Kara river from its mouth in the Kara
sea TO its head streams in the Ural
m ountains; thence south along the
water parting between the European
a ID Asiatic rivers in the Urals to the
! head waters of the Ural river: thence
along the Ural river to its mouth in the
Caspian sea and the west shore of the
Caspian to the city of Baku.
The question of the southeast bound
airy Of Europe is q more debatable one
Some geographers, headed by Reclus,
insist that the remarkable Manytisch
depression north of the Caucasus, whose
almost stagnant waters flow sometimes
east and sometimes west, is the natural
boundary between Europe and Asia
Reclus says that the aspects Of the coun-
try and people south OF the Manytisch
depression are distinctively Asiatic, and
he treats the whole of Caucasia. includ-
ing the lofty Caucasus mountains, as 4
part of Asia. Other writer's regard the
the whole of Caucasia as belonging &c
Europe, while the Russians. under the
leadership OF Strelbitsl1y, have fixed up
on a line passing over thestops of the
Caucasus mountains as the proper
boundary between Europe and Asia
from the Caspian to the Black sea.
1t may be said that the leading Ger
man experts agree with the Russian
view. and it is noteworthy that, while
''Die Bevoll1erung der Erde'' estimates
the area of Europe in accordance with
all three OF these hypothesis as to its
southeastern boundary, it counts al
the people living north of the Caucasus
as European and those living south OF
the mountains as Asiatic.
This is point upon which the geog
raphies used in our schools do not agree
but our tecahers may instruct THEN
pupils that the Caucasus mountains are
part OF the boundary between Europt
and Asia with the assurance that the
weight of authority is in favor of thi,
statement-N. Y. Sun.