On the Declivities of Mountains :; 33 



Bohemian and the other of the Moravian mountains, which yet 

 are the fteeped ; many originate from lakes, as the Shannoii 

 with us; many take fuch a winding courfe, that, from a bare 

 knowledge of the place of their difemboguement, it is im- 

 poffible to judge from what fide of a mountain they iiTue, if 

 from any ; their courfe at moil discovers the depreffibn of the 

 general level of the country. 



In 1798, the celebrated traveller and circumriavigatdrj 

 John Reinhold Fofter, publiflied a geological tract, which 

 merits fo much more attention as all the facts were either 

 bbferved by himfelf, or related to him by the immediate ob- 

 fervers. In this he ftates, as a fact univerfally obferved, that 

 the Fouth and fouth-eaft fides of almoft every mountain are 

 fteep, but that the north and north-weft fides are gently co- 

 vered, and connected, with fecondary ftrata in which organic 

 remains abound, which he illuftrates by various inftances, 

 fome of which have been already, and others will prefently 

 be, mentioned. 



At prefent this fact attracts the greateft attention, being 

 obvioufly connected with the original (tructure of the globe, 

 and clearly proving that mountains are not mere fortuitous 

 eruptions, unconnected with tranfactions on the furface of 

 the earth, as has of late been confidently advanced. 



I fhall now ftate the principal obfervations relative to tilie 

 object that have been made in different parts of the world. 



In Europe. 



i° The mountains that feparate Sweden from Norway ex- 

 tend from north to fouth ; their weftern fides are fteep, and 

 the eaftern gentle. 1 Bergm. Erde Befchrcib. p. 157. 



3° The Carpathian mountains run from eaft to weft; their 

 fouthern fides, towards Hungary, are fteep; their northern, 

 towards Poland, moderate. Fofier, § 46. 



3 Doctor Walker, prbfeffor of natural hifidry at Edin- 

 burgh, obferved that the coafts and hills of Scotland ars 

 deeper and higher on the weftern fide than on the ealtefti. 

 Jamifon's Mineralogy of Shetland, p. 3. — However, Jam i foil 

 obferved that the fouth fide of the ifle of Arran is the loweftj 

 and the north fide the higheft : p. 51, 



Vot; VIII. F ' 40 fjig 



