On the Declivities of Mountains. 31 



Sweden from Norway, the weftern or Norwegian fides are 

 the fteepeft, and the eaftern or Swedith the mod moderate ; 

 the vertically or fteepnefs of the former being to that of the 

 latter as 40 or 50 to 4 or 2 *. 



2dly, That the Alps are fteeper on their weftern and 

 fouthern fides than on the eaftern and northern. 



3dly, That in America the Cordelieres are fteeper on the 

 weftern fide, which faces the Pacific Ocean, than en the 

 eaftern : but he does not notice a few exceptions to this rule 

 in particular cafes, which will hereafter be mentioned. 



Buffon, in the firft Volume of his Epochs of Nature, pub- 

 lished in 1778, p. 185, is the next who notices the general 

 prevalence of this phenomenon, as far as relates to the eaftern 

 and weftern fides of the mountains that extend from north to 

 fouth, but he i* filent with refpeel: to the north and fouth 

 fides of the mountains that ?un from eaft to weft ; nav, 

 he docs not feem to have a juft comprehenfion of this phe- 

 nomenon, for he conliders it conjointly with the general 

 dip of the regions in which thefe mountains exift. Thus he 

 tells us, Vol. I. p. 185, that in all continents the general de- 

 clivity, taking it from the fummit of mountains, is always 

 more rapid on the weftern than on the eaftern fide ; thus the 

 fummit of the chain of the; Cordelieres is much nearer to 

 the weftern ihores than to the eaftern : the chain which 

 divides the whole length of Africa, from the Cape of Good 

 Hope to the Mountains of the Moon, is nearer, he fays, to 

 the weftern than to the eaftern feas : of this, however, he 

 mull have been ignorant, as that tra& of country is ftill un- 

 known. 



The mountains which run from Cape Comorin through 

 the peninfula of India, are, he fays, much nearer to the fea 

 on the eaft than on the weft : he probably meant the con- 

 trary, as the fa& is evidently fo ; and fo he ftates it in the 

 fecond Volume, p. 295 : the fame, he tells us, may be ob- 

 ferved in iflands and peninfulas, and in mountains. 



This remarkable circumftance of mountains was, notwith- 

 ftanding, fo little noticed, that in 1792, the author of an ex- 

 cellent account of the territory of Carlfbad in Bohemia, tells 



1 The vcrticality of the fide* is invcrftly a> the length of the defcenr. 

 4 us 



