32 Geological DellneaCion of South America, 



longer be believed that the rising of the strata follows the 

 •hrection of tlie corclillera, and that the falling follows the. 

 declivity of the mountains. The profile of many of the 

 mountains, particularly a section of the mountains, such as 

 that of Genoa through the Bochetta, and of St. Gothard as 

 far as Franconia in Germany, which T intend to publish at 

 a. proper time, proves exactly the contrary. The rising and 

 declivity of the Cordillera, the form of the small inequali- 

 ties of the earth, seem to be newer phenomena. A stream 

 mioht scoop out a valley in this or m that direction ; might 

 tear asunder a part of the cordillera, and give it apparently 

 one direction or another. I'iie strata of the original moun- 

 tains appear, amidst all these angles of rising and falling- 

 observed at present, to have existed before these changes at 

 the surface of the earth. They are the same at the sunimit 

 of the Alps, and in the mines into which we descend. 

 When one travels for 15 miles over strata of argillaceous 

 schist, which are inclined parallel to each other, at an an- 

 gle of 7G° towards the north-west, one can no longer be- 

 lieve that they are deranged strata, which once sitood hori- 

 aontal. We must suppose mountains that were once 13 

 miles in height, and that the whole mass had an uniform 

 fall, and then rellect on the space which such a mass would 

 cecupy : and one must remember the strata on the heights 

 of Gcjioa, or on the heights of Bochetta, or on St. Maurice, 

 which aie exactly parallel; and on the strata of the Fich^ 

 Tclberg of Gallicia, the Silla de Caracas of llobolo on the 

 isthmus of Arava of Cassiguiare, in the neighbourhood of 

 tJic equator. One must allow that this coincidence gives 

 evidv;nce of a cause which has acted at a very early period, 

 and in a general manner ; a cause wliich must have arisen 

 from the first attiaction by \\ iiich matter was forced toge- 

 tlicr to form a spherical planet. 



■ This grand cause does hot exclude local causes, by which 

 indi\idual smaller parts of matter were determined to ar- 

 range themselves in this or in that manner, according to 

 the li^vvs of crystallization. Delametherie has made an in- 

 genious remaik on this subicct : he shows the influence of 

 a large mountain (as. a small nucleus) on the neiohbouring' 

 sniall mountains. One must not forget that, besides the 

 general attraction towards the ceutre, all matters exercise a 

 mutual attraction on eacli other. 



The crust of the eavlh, for I will venture. to.speak only 

 of this part, : must be the resull of aa immense action of 

 powers of aftiaeLion of aiiinitiee, which dctcnnintd, put 

 m equiiibriuiji, ai>.!Li..juydil.it;d:.iLach cihcr.. M. Klugel 



thouirht 



