lack the bold
peaks, the extensive snow-fields, the large glaciers, the high
waterfalls and the numerous large lakes which are found in the Alps.
They are nowhere covered by perpetual snow, and glaciers do not exist,
so that the Carpathians, even in their highest altitude, recall the
middle region of the Alps, with which, however, they have many points in
common as regards appearance, structure and flora. The Danube separates
the Carpathians from the Alps, which they meet only in two points,
namely, the Leitha Mountains at Pressburg, and the Bakony Mountains at
Vacz (Waitzen), while the same river separates them from the Balkan
Mountains at Orsova. The valley of the March and Oder separates the
Carpathians from the Silesian and Moravian chains, which belong to the
middle wing of the great central mountain system of Europe. The
Carpathians separate Hungary and Transylvania from Lower Austria,
Moravia, Silesia, Galicia, Bukovina and Rumania, while its ramifications
fill the whole northern part of Hungary, and form the quadrangular mass
of the Transylvanian plateau. Unlike the other wings of the great
central system of Europe, the Carpathians, which form the watershed
between the northern seas and the Black Sea, are surrounded on all sides
by plains, namely the great Hungarian plain on the south-west, the plain
of the Lower Danube (Rumania) on the south, and the Galician plain on
the north-east.

The Carpathian system can be divided into two groups: the Carpathians
proper, and the mountains of Transylvania. The Carpathians proper
consist of an outer wall, which forms the frontier between Hungary and
the adjacent provinces of Austria, and of an inner wall which fills the
whole of Upper Hungary, and forms the central group. The outer wall is a
complex, roughly circular mass of about 600 m. extending from Pressburg
to the valley of the Viso, and the Golden Bistritza, and is divided by
the Poprad into two parts, the western Carpathians and the eastern or
wooded Carpathians. Orographically, therefore, the proper Carpathians
are divided into: (a) the western Carpathians, (b) the eastern or wooded
Carpathians, and (c) the central groups.

Ranges.

(a) The western Carpathians, which begin at the _Porta Hungarica_ on
the Danube, just opposite the Leitha Mountains, and extend to the
Poprad river, are composed of four principal groups: the Little
Carpathians (also called the Pressburg group) with the highest peak