Geological Society. 309 



new geological sense, and a new faculty of induction : and I cannot 

 express my feelings of regret, that during my recent visit to the 

 Eastern Alps I did not possess this grand key to the mysteries of 

 Nature. 



I am aware how impossible it is in a few words to give any clear 

 notion of a volume of condensed original researches. Dropping 

 all minor details, I may, however, claim your indulgence while 

 I point out the author's manner of induction in four great systems 

 of European chains : not indeed in the wish of quenching the curi- 

 osity of those who have not studied this question, but rather in the 

 hope of urging them to seek the fountain of original information. 



1. The first system includes the higher elevations, in eastern 

 France, of the Cote d'Or and Mont Pilas, and a portion of the Jura 

 chain. It may be traced towards the valley of the Rhine, where it 

 is suddenly cut off; but it reappears in the chain of the Erzgebirge, 

 between Bohemia and Saxony. It never rises into mountains of the 

 first order, but is marked throughout (as may be seen on a good 

 physical map) by many longitudinal ridges and furrows, ranging 

 nearly parallel to each other in a direction about north-east and south- 

 west. So far the statement is only an enumeration of certain con- 

 nected facts in physical geography. But it is followed by a coordi- 

 nate series of geological phaenomena. 



A number of formations, including in the ascending order the 

 whole oolitic series, enter here and there into the composition of 

 the geographical system above described ; and, without exception, 

 wherever they appear all are in turn elevated, broken, or contorted; 

 yet in their lines of range they preserve a parallelism to the general 

 direction of the ridges. On the contrary, wherever rocks of an age 

 not older than that of the green-sand or chalk, appear in the vicinity 

 of any portion of this system, they are either found at a dead level 

 and expanded from the neighbouring mountains into horizontal 

 planes, like the sea at the base of a lofty cliff; or if, since their first 

 deposit, they have undergone any great movement, it is shown to 

 have no relation to the bearing of the older ridges, and to have been 

 produced at a later period. 



From all these combined facts follow three important conse- 

 quences. 1st, That the whole system of parallel ridges, from one 

 end to the other, was elevated at the same period of time, after the 

 development of the oolitic series, and before the deposition of the 

 green-sand and chalk. 2ndly, That the action of elevation was 

 violent and of short continuance, for the inclined strata are shattered 

 and contorted ; and between them and the horizontal strata there 

 is no intermediate gradation of deposits. 3rdly, That the period of 

 elevation was followed by an immediate change in many of the 

 forms of organic life. 



2. The next great system includes the whole chain of the Py- 

 renees the Northern Apennines the calcareous chains to the 

 north-east of the Adriatic nearly the whole Carpathian chain 

 and a great series of inequalities, continued from that chain through 

 the Hartz mountains to the plains of Northern Germany. Through 



the 



