114 Baron Alexander von Humboldt on the Physiognomy/ 



The pi'ecedlng are the most general considerations regard- 

 ing the present configuration of Continents (the extension of 

 the solid land in a horizontal direction), Tvhich result from a 

 survey of the surface of our planet. AVe have placed to- 

 gether the facts on this subject, and the analogies of the form 

 of remote portions of the earth, which, however, we do not 

 venture to term kovs of the form. When we observe on the 

 slope of an active volcano, as, for example, on Vesuvius, the 

 not unfrequent phenomenon of partial elevations, in whicli 

 small portions of the surface, previous to or during an erup- 

 tion, have their level changed to the amount of several feet, 

 and give rise to roof-like ridges, or to flat eminences ; we 

 perceive that the elevated portions assume this or that form 

 and direction, in consequence of trifling accidental differ- 

 ences in the intensity of tlie subterranean action of the va- 

 pours, and of the extent of resistance to be overcome. In 

 the same manner, inconsiderable disturbances in the equili- 

 brium of the interior of our planet may have caused the ele- 

 vating elastic forces to have acted more towards the northern 

 than towards the southern half of the earth, and to have 

 forced up the solid land in the eastern hemisphere in the 

 form of a broad connected mass, having its principal axis 

 nearly parallel to the equator, and in the western and more 

 oceanic half of the earth in the form of a narrow mass, liaving 

 the direction of meridians. 



But little can be ascertained empirically respecting the 

 causal connection of these leading points in the formation of 

 the dryland — of the resemblances and contrasts of its configu- 

 ration. We know onl}"^ this much : that the operating cause 

 is subterranean ; that the present form of the land was not 

 produced at once, but that, from the epoch of the forma- 

 tion of the Silurian rocks, up to that of the deposition of the 

 Tertiary strata, the land was gradually increased and united 

 together by the blending of individual and smaller conti- 

 nents, after the occurrence of a variety of oscillating eleva- 

 tions and sinkings of the surface. The present configuration 

 is the result of two causes, which have operated consecu- 

 tively, — in the first place, a subterranean manifestation of 

 power, whose amount and direction we term accidental, be- 



