$Z On the Declivities of Mountains. 



us he had made an obfervation, which he had never met 

 with in any phyfical description of the earth, namely, that 

 the fouthern declivity of all mountains was much fteeper than 

 the northern, which he proves by inftancing the Erzgebirge< 

 of Saxony, the Pyrenees, the mountains of Switzerland, 

 Savoy, Carinthia, Tyrole, Moravia, the Carpathian, and 

 Mount Haemus in Turkey, a Bergm. Jour. 1792, p. 385, 

 in the note. 



Herman in his Geology, publifhed in 1797, p. 90, has at 

 leaft partially mentioned this circumftance, for he fays that 

 the eaftern declivities of all mountains are much gentler and 

 more thickly covered with fecondary ftrata, and to a greater 

 height, than the weftern flanks, which he inftances in the 

 Swedifh and Norwegian mountains, the Alps, the Cauca- 

 fian, the Appennine and the Ouralian mountains ; but the 

 declivities, bearing a fouthern or northern afpe£t, he does 

 not mention. 



La Metherie, in the fourth Volume of his Theory of the 

 Earth, of which the fecond edition appeared in 1797, a 

 work which abounds in excellent observations), p. 381 *, 

 produces numerous inftances of the inequality of the eaftern 

 and weftern declivities, but fcarce any of the northern and 

 fouthern, whofe difference he does not feem to have noticed ; 

 but he makes a remark, which I have not feen elfewhere, 

 that the coafts of different countries prefent fimilar declivities. 



With regard to eaftern and weftern afpe&s, he thinks that 

 a different law has obtained in Africa from that which has 

 been obferved in other countries ; for in that vaft peninfula 

 he imagines the eaftern declivities of mountains are the 

 fteepeft, and the weftern the gentleft. Of this, however, he 

 adduces no other proof but that the greateft rivers are found 

 on the weftern fide : this proof feems infufficient, as, if moun- 

 tains be fituated far inland, great rivers may flow indiscrimi- 

 nately from any fide of them, and fometitnes few rivers flow 

 even from the fide whofe defcent is moft moderate, for in-, 

 ftance, from the eaftern fide of the mountains of Syria : the 

 Elbe and the Oder, two of the greateft rivers in Germany, 

 take their coiirfe from the weftern fides, the firft of the 



. * It is to be regretted that he fcarce ever quotes his authorities. 



Bohemian 



