134 Dr Boue on the Elevatimi of Mountain Chains, 



rection of the strata is N.N. E. to S.S. W., or N.N. W. to S.S. E., 

 and sometimes W. N. W. to E. S. E. Another example is the 

 primary part of the Bohmer-Wald-Gebirge, where the direction is 

 most generally E. N. E. to W. S. W. It was thus that the Con- 

 tinent was produced, which was afterwards covered with the in- 

 sular vegetation whose remains are now buried in the coaly beds 

 of Silesia and Bohemia. This, then, would be an example of 

 a variety of directions in the same system of elevation, and it 

 will be perceived, that, with my mode of reasoning, one can go 

 farther, and with more certainty, than when guided only by the 

 doctrine of directions of chains, and the parallelism of elevations. 



If M. de Beaumont is skilful enough to decompose all these 

 various directions into as many systems, it remains for him still 

 to prove the chief point, viz. that all the upheavings besides that 

 from a little to the E. of N.E., to a little to the W. of S.W,, 

 have taken place at a subsequent period ; and this is the ques- 

 tion upon which I insist. 



I believe that every epoch has resulted from several limited 

 movements, which have taken place in the same or in dif- 

 ferent directions ; but as yet our collection of facts as to direc- 

 tions and inclinations is not sufficient to enable us to subdivide 

 each period, but this may possibly be afterwards accomplished. 



In sketching out the position of the European Islands before 

 the formation of the carboniferous series, I enumerated, after the 

 isles or emerged and upheaved masses, a series of submarine 

 chains or rocks placed at an inferior level, and composed of the 

 newest transition rocks, (Memoires Geologiques, et Paleontolo- 

 giques, vol. i. p. 19). M. de Beaumont has taken a part of these 

 last to construct his second system of elevation^ or that of the Bal- 

 lons (Vosges), and the hills of the Bocage (Calvados). This 

 system would also comprise a part of the interior of Brittany, a 

 portion of the south-eastern part of the Vosges and of the Lo- 

 zere, the anthracitiferous rocks of Southern Iceland, and some 

 hills of greywacke and slate in Devonshire and Somersetshire. 

 Lastly, M. de Beaumont has included in this system the hills of 

 greywacke to the N.W. of Magdeburg, the hills of Sandomirz 

 in S.W. Poland, and the formation of the N.N. E. escarpment of 

 the Hartz. 



This elevation, anterior to the old red sandstone formation, 



