Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition

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Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition,?by Various

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition,
Volume 4, Part 4, by Various This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4 "Bulgaria" to "Calgary"
Author: Various
Release Date: November 17, 2006 [EBook #19846]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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Produced by Don Kretz, Juliet Sutherland, Keith Edkins and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was made using scans of public domain material from the Robinson Curriculum.)

Transcriber's note: A few typographical errors have been corrected: they are listed at the end of the text. Volume and page numbers have been incorporated into the text of each page as: v.04 p.0001.
In the article CALCITE, negative Miller Indices, e.g. "1-bar" in the original are shown as "-1".
In the article CALCULATING MACHINES, [Integral,a:b] indicates a definite integral between lower limit a and upper limit b. [Integral] by itself indicates an indefinite integral. [=x] and [=y] indicate x-bar and y-bar in the original.
[v.04 p.0773] [Illustration]
the mean interval being 60 m.; the summits are, as a rule, rounded, and the slopes gentle. The culminating points are in the centre of the range: Yumrukchál (7835 ft.), Maragudúk (7808 ft.), and Kadimlía (7464 ft.). The Balkans are known to the people of the country as the Stara Planina or "Old Mountain," the adjective denoting their greater size as compared with that of the adjacent ranges: "Balkán" is not a distinctive term, being applied by the Bulgarians, as well as the Turks, to all mountains. Closely parallel, on the south, are the minor ranges of the Sredna Gora or "Middle Mountains" (highest summit 5167 ft.) and the Karaja Dagh, enclosing respectively the sheltered valleys of Karlovo and Kazanlyk. At its eastern extremity the Balkan chain divides into three ridges, the central terminating in the Black Sea at Cape Eminé ("Haemus"), the northern forming the watershed between the tributaries of the Danube and the rivers falling directly into the Black Sea. The Rhodope, or southern group, is altogether distinct from the Balkans, with which, however, it is connected by the Malka Planina and the Ikhtiman hills, respectively west and east of Sofia; it may be regarded as a continuation of the great Alpine system which traverses the Peninsula from the Dinaric Alps and the Shar Planina on the west to the Shabkhana Dagh near the Aegean coast; its sharper outlines and pine-clad steeps reproduce the scenery of the Alps rather than that of the Balkans. The imposing summit of Musallá (9631 ft.), next to Olympus, the highest in the Peninsula, forms the centre-point of the group; it stands within the Bulgarian frontier at the head of the Mesta valley, on either side of which the Perin Dagh and the Despoto Dagh descend south and south-east respectively towards the Aegean. The chain of Rhodope proper radiates to the east; owing to the retrocession of territory already mentioned, its central ridge no longer completely coincides with the Bulgarian boundary, but two of its principal summits, Sytké (7179 ft.) and Karlyk (6828 ft.), are within the frontier. From Musallá in a westerly direction extends the majestic range of the Rilska Planina, enclosing in a picturesque valley the celebrated monastery of Rila; many summits of this chain attain 7000 ft. Farther west, beyond the Struma valley, is the Osogovska Planina, culminating in Ruyen (7392 ft.). To the north of the Rilska Planina the almost isolated mass of Vitosha (7517 ft.) overhangs Sofia. Snow and ice remain in the sheltered crevices of Rhodope and the Balkans throughout the summer. The fertile slope trending northwards from the Balkans to the Danube is for the most part gradual and broken by hills; the eastern portion known as the Delí Orman, or "Wild Wood," is covered by forest, and thinly inhabited. The abrupt and sometimes precipitous character of the Bulgarian bank of the Danube contrasts with the swampy lowlands and lagoons of the Rumanian side. Northern Bulgaria is watered by the Lom, Ogust, Iskr, Vid, Osem, Yantra and Eastern Lom, all, except the Iskr, rising in the Balkans, and all flowing into the Danube. The channels of these rivers are deeply furrowed and the fall is rapid; irrigation is consequently difficult and navigation impossible. The course of the Iskr is remarkable: rising in the Rilska Planina, the river descends into the basin of Samakov, passing thence through a serpentine defile into the plateau of Sofia, where in ancient times it formed a lake; it now forces its way through the Balkans by the picturesque gorge of Iskretz. Somewhat similarly the Deli, or