igoy.] AND MOUNTAIN FORMATION. 373 



A study of the map of North America shows that the Alaskan 

 mountains to the north of Cook's Inlet are merely a continuation of 

 the Rocky Mountains of Canada and the United States. The 

 Alaskan mountains form the back bone of the Alaskan peninsula 

 and continue into the sea as the Aleutian Islands. The Aleutian 

 Islands are therefore part of the Rocky IMountains still beneath the 

 ocean to show us how the whole system was formed in the course 

 of immeasurable ages. What is here said about the Alaskan moun- 

 tains running into the sea applies equally well to various other chains 

 of mountains in different parts of the world. 



Thus Mr. Caspar Wistar, formerly a student of Professor E. W. 

 Brown, at Haverford College, now at Temuco, Chile, in sending 

 the writer some valuable observations on the Andes, says : " The 

 coast range begins properly about 25 miles north of Santiago, and 

 there is no trouble in following it until it finally disappears in the 

 ocean in Tierra del Fuego and Cape Horn. Lying between the 

 coast range and the Andes is the central valley of Chile. At the 

 northern end is the highest part, where it is close to 2000 feet 

 above sea level ; this gradually grows less as one goes south until 

 finally at Puerta Montt it enters the ocean and can be followed on 

 south below the sea level to Smyth's Channel and the western part 

 of the Straits of Magellan." 



In like m.anner the mountains of the peninsula of Lower Califor- 

 nia are continued under the sea ; and dozens of other cases could be 

 cited. These need not be dwelt upon here, as they are already suffi- 

 ciently familiar to the reader. The case of the Aleutian Islands has 

 been chosen for detailed study, because the mountain forming 

 process is still actively at work there in a way which shows its real 

 character. 



The true process by which mountains are formed near the 

 margin of the sea is thus recognized and placed beyond all doubt. 

 Accordingly it follows that the old theories of mountain formation 

 must be entirely abandoned, as having no valid foundation in nature. 

 For owing to the similarity of the effects we cannot suppose that 

 some mountains are formed by one process and some by another. 

 All mountain ranges were near the sea originally, and essentially 

 parallel to the shore ; and since the mountains rear their lofty summits 



