80 THE ORIGIN OF MOUNTAINS. 



THE ORIGIN OF MOUNTAINS. 



BY HORACE B. WOODWARD, F.G.S. 



(Continued from page 10. ) 



This leads us on to the question of Sculpture. In the case of the 

 Jura Mountains we may learn how the disturbance of the strata has 

 directly produced the heights, the summits of the folds corresponding 

 with the elevations ; hut in nearly all the great mountain chains, 

 and, indeed, in nearly every hill and dale in this country, we find 

 that the features are the result of the excavation or denudation of 

 the rocks ; the valleys are due to the removal of material. 



Elcvatorv forces must in all cases have brought the rocks to their 

 present height ; still we find our very highest hills and mountains are 

 but wrecks of heights that once towered much above them. Nor can 

 we wonder that time has brought change. If we glance at the 

 " Shivering Mountain" (Mam Tor) in Derbyshire, we learn that every 

 rain and frost brings down much earth and rock. In the same way 

 severe winters play havoc with newly-built walls, embankments, and 

 railway cuttings. In the Lake District the driver of the coach will tell how 

 there have been "rushes of stones" here and there. The great Bowder 

 Stone, in Borrowdale, is a witness to this ; and the " screes " or masses 

 of loose material that here and there form the slopes up which the 

 pedestrian has to climb, testify to the destruction that goes on. Nor 

 have the waterfalls been idle. If we could see them in the winter 

 time, or after heavy rains, we should not be disappointed with them. 

 Imagination must in fine weather come to our assistance in picturing 

 the Scale Force to be " The Queen of Waterfalls ;" we may, perhaps, 

 acknowledge the " Stock Ghyll" to be " the gem of the Lake District ;" 

 but when we come to Lodore, and are told that it is " The English 

 Niagara, ' the imagination requires a considerable stretch. 



But, setting aside what each stream and torrent is doing, leaving out 

 the results of the winter's frost, we know very well that some time 

 ago, two or three hundred thousand years, more or less, the hills were 

 clad in snow and ice, glaciers formed in the valleys and clefts, and 

 then the hills suffered much denudation. The wreck of older rocks, 

 in the form "f boulderolays, spread over the Eastern Counties, speaks 

 forcibly of this great destruction. 



All mountains have thus suffered great denudation at different 

 l of their existence, yielding up their materials to furnish re- 

 cords of later ages. Their outline is owing partly to the durability 

 of the rocks, partly to the lie of the strata. 



One other form ought to be mentioned, the " burning mountain," 

 or volcano, which is built of the material ejected, and attains a 

 height —in the case of Kilauea, in Hawaii, of nearly 14,000 feet. 



As it is considered that volcanic action was in former times more 

 than it hots i^. everj outburst being a loss of energy, so in past 



