124 On the Physiognomy of the Earth. 



plains of Siberia are counter-balanced by the enormous swel- 

 ling of the surface of Asia between lat. 28i° and 40°, be- 

 tween the Himalaya, the northern Thibetian Kuen-Lun, and 

 the Sky Mountains. We can, to a certain extent, determine, 

 from the estimated amounts, where the plutonic force of the 

 interior of the globe has operated with greatest power in 

 elevating continental masses. 



There is nothing to assure us, that the same plutonic 

 forces may not, in the course of future ages, make additions 

 to the systems of mountains of different degrees of antiquity, 

 and having different directions, as they are enumerated by 

 Elie de Beaumont. Why should the crust of the earth have 

 already lost the px'operty of becoming elevated or folded ? 

 The mountain-systems of the Alps and of the Andes, which 

 were almost the last that made their appearance, have ele- 

 vated colossal masses in Mont Blanc and Monte Rosa, in 

 Sorata, Illimani, and Chimborazo, masses which do not at all 

 lead to the conclusion that there had been a diminution in 

 the intensity of subterranean power. All the phenomena of 

 geognosy indicate a periodical alternation of activity and 

 tranquillity.* The repose which we now enjoy is only appa- 

 rent. Earthquakes, which agitate the surface of the earth in 

 every region under heaven, and in every kind of rock, — the 

 rising of Sweden, — and the production of new volcanic islands, 

 — do not give evidence in fovour of a continuance of the 

 tranquillity of the earth. t 



» Vide tbe Second Geological Letter from Elie de Eeaumont to Alex- 

 ander von Humboldt, in Poagcndorfi's Annalcn, vol. xxv., pp. 1-58. 



t From Kosmos. Enlwur/tlncr Physischcn Wclthcschrcihung von Alexan- 

 der von Hxunholdt, vol. i., p. 301. 1845. 



