128 Dr Boue on the Elevation of Mountain Chains. 



gives a very fair idea of the changes which Europe has under- 

 gone at different times. 



Some will say that I put too much weight on details ; and I 

 certainly do consider details as of great consequence, as it is 

 in this way that it is most easy to point out an error, which 

 might otherwise escape in the midst of generalizations. When 

 M. de Beaumont shall have classed the whole of the European 

 ranges and chains of mountains and the rest of that continent 

 under his twelve lines of elevations, then every one will recog- 

 nise with ease the truths as well as the errors of his doctrine. 

 To give a striking instance of this, it is only necessary to recall 

 to mind the line drawn by M. de Beaumont from north to south, 

 on Corsica, Sardinia, and Istria ; and for what reason ? probably 

 because their pointed extremities are turned to the south, as 

 those of almost all continents and large islands are ; for the di- 

 rection of the strata is quite different, and indeed nearly the re- 

 verse. Now, every person who had traced upon a map the di- 

 rection of the stratification of the mineral masses of these coun- 

 tries, would distinguish at once the important error committed 

 by the ardent imagination of the professor. In this way, I am 

 naturally induced to mention, as the greatest imperfection of his 

 theory, the not taking sufficiently into consideration the general 

 direction or strike of the beds. This omission, and the horo- 

 scopical interpretations of imperfect maps, are the chief objec- 

 tions I have to the application of the theory. 



The formulary of M. de Beaumon^s system was and still is 

 *' Pindependance des systemes de montagnes diversement diri- 

 gees, (Recherches sur quelques unes des Revolutions du Globe, 

 &c. p. 303 ; and Manuel, p. 62^) ; that means that every sys- 

 tem of elevation has taken a different direction, sui generis. 

 Starting from that proposition, which I believe is only correct 

 within certain limits, he tells us of parallel lines of hills from 

 the Cape Ortegal to the Persian Gulf, from Tenessee in the 

 United States to Cape Comorin in India, (Bull. Univ. de Sc. 

 Nat. vol. 21. p. 355). From this he considers himself entitled 

 to co'^clude, what is in fact merely hypothetical, that " Tecorce 

 minerale du globe presente une serie de vides dont le parallelisme 

 semble indiquer que la production est instantanee," (Bull. p. 

 >i56.) In repeating last year my objections to these propositions 



