«r8 On the Declivities of Mountains. 



Kiains, for inftance the carboniferous, cannot be deemed to 

 have been formed in a period fo tumultuous. - During this 

 deluge the waters alfo held a different courfe, proceeding at 

 £r(t from fouth to north, and afterwards in both oppofite di- 

 rections in our weftern hemifphere, as fliown in treating of 

 that cataftrophe in my fecond eflay. 



Hence, and from various contingent local caufes, as par- 

 tial inundations, earthquakes, volcanoes, the erofion of rivers, 

 the elapfion of ftrata, difintegration, the difruption of the 

 lofty mounds by which many lakes were antiently hemmed 

 in, feveral changes were produced in particular countries that 

 mav at firft fight appear, though in reality they are not, ex- 

 ceptions to the operation of the general caules already ftated. 

 Thus the mountains of Kamfkatka had their eafiern flanks 

 torn and rendered abrupt by the irruption of the general de- 

 luge, probably accompanied by earthquakes. And thus the 

 Metflener had its eaft and north flanks undermined by the 

 river Waira, as Werner has fliown: thus the eighth and 

 fixteenth observations are accounted for, as is the thirteenth, 

 by the vaft inundations fo frequent in this country, i Pallas, 

 p. 172, which undermined or corroded its eaft fide, while 

 the weftern were fmoothed by the calcareous depofitions 

 from the numerous rivers in its vicinity. 



Hence, 4/ 1 , we fee why on different fides of lofty mountains 

 different fpecies of ftones are found, as Pallas and SaufTure 

 have obferved, 2 Sauff. § 9.81 ; a circumfiance which Sauf- 

 fure imagined almoft inexplicable, but which Dolomieu has 

 fince happily explained, by mowing that the current which 

 conveyed the calcareous fubftances to the northern, eafiern, 

 and north-eattern fides of the Alps, for inftance, was (topped 



.hv the height of thefe mountains, and thus prevented from 

 conveying them to the fouthern fides ; and thus the north- 

 eaitern fides were rendered more gentle than the oppofite. 

 3 New Roz. p. 425, conformably to the theory here given. 

 Hence, 5., where feveral lofty ridges run parallel to each 



.other it mult frequently happen that the external mould in- 



-tcrcept the depofitions that do not furmount them, and thus 



.leave the internal ridges fteep on both fides. 



< Hence.; 



