a.
1. [SUB- 1 a.] Passing under, or existing below, mountains.
1819. Blackw. Mag., VI. 150. He sails along … till the shallop is driven into a cavern in the ‘etherial cliffs of Caucasus.’ It is scarcely to be expected that his submontane voyage should be very distinctly described.
1859. W. M. Thomson, Land & Book, II. xvii. I. 377. The dark stairway … was a subterranean, or, rather, submontane path to the great fountain of Banias.
2. [SUB- 12 a.] Lying about the foot of mountains; belonging to the foot-hills of a range; also, belonging to the lower slopes of mountains.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 287. Their principal station is on the sub-montane region between 1200 and 3600 feet of elevation.
1880. Libr. Univ. Knowl., VII. 161. The fertile submontane plains of Sialkot.
1888. Encycl. Brit., XXIV. 610/2. The submontane district around the town of Tokay.
1913. Blackw. Mag., April, 448/1. Hardy sub-montane savages armed with … deadly war-tools.
So † Submontaneous a. = 1 above.
1682. Wheler, Journ. Greece, VI. 465. These Subterraneous, or rather Submontaneous Passages of the Water, may … be reckoned amongst the greatest Wonders of the World.
