1 4S Dr Boue on the Elevation of Mountain Chains 



I do not see reasons for believing that the Alleghanys and the 

 Gaults of Malabar were elevated at the same time as the Py- 

 renees. No one has ever observed greensand on the summit of 

 the Alleghanys, a range of mountains composed of slaty rocks 

 which are more or less crystalline and arenaceous, or of older 

 schistose rocks. Some old coal measures occur at their base, and 

 at some distance, some red saliferous sandstones. The sections 

 of Maciure, Brown, Taylor, Hitchcock, and other American mi- 

 neralogists, show that this chain was elevated before the deposi- 

 tion of the old coal strata, but it has, perhaps, subsequently been 

 subjected to some dislocations. The Gaults of Malabar have, 

 according to Dr Hardie and other geologists, a direction from 

 north to south, or rather a little to the west of north to a little 

 to the east of south. They are composed chiefly of granite, 

 crystalline slates, and trap-rocks, a geological constitution which 

 at once excludes the idea of correspondence with the Pyrenees. 

 They are probably a continuation of hilly ranges, elevated be- 

 fore the deposition of the old coal measures, and before that of 

 the red saliferous sandstone of India; and regarding them in 

 this light, one does not see what relation they can have with the 

 present configuration of the Pyrenees. It is more likely that the 

 mountains of the Crimea and the Caucasus were connected with 

 the elevation of the Carpathians and Pyrenees. 



The connecting the upheaved northern chain of Norway with 

 that of the Western Alps (an idea founded on the direction of 

 the chains given in maps) remains a mere hypothesis, as there 

 is a total want of floetz and tertiary rocks in Norway. From 

 the North Cape to the White Cape in Africa, the general line 

 of the European shores had, according to M. de Beaumont, the 

 direction of that elevation. The great Alps would be repre- 

 sented by the Atlas and by the central chains of the Caucasus 

 and the Himalaya. " Toutes ces chaines courent parallelment 

 a un grand cercle qu'on representerait sur un globe terrestre par 

 un fil tendu du milieu de Pempire de Maroc, au nord de Tempire 

 des Birmans," (p. 659.) 



The Himalaya range has not the direction of the Eastern Alps, 

 as is well seen in the excellent map of Professor Ritter (Abh. d. 

 k, Acad. Wissensch, Berlin 1832.) According to that learned 

 geographer, this great range runs N.W. and S.E. (Entwurf 



