a Theory of the Earth. ~<jl 



from, grand chains of mountain?, there are not found final! 

 hills and even tertiary mountains, which feem to have been 

 formed by the accumulation of matters depofited by enor- 

 mous currents that iffued formerly from thefe valleys. 



3. Whether their itrata do not defcend on the fide, 

 whence the matter of which they are formed has pro- 

 ceeded ? 



4. Size and nature of the fragments, fand and earth, of 



which they are compofed. 



5. To obferve the order which has been followed in the 

 fucceffive depofits of the matters of which they are formed. 



6. To compare them with the fubftances produced by the 

 mountains, whether primitive or feebndary, from which 

 they are fuppofed to have iffued. 



7. To examine whether there are found there any vcftiges 

 of organifed bodies. 



8. To examine whether there are not found, in their ex- 

 terior part or furface, ft rata that feem to have been depofited 

 by ftagnant water, or' at leaft water not much agitated; or, 

 on the contrary, whether every thing in them feems to have 

 been tranfported by fome violent movement ? 



CHAP. XIV. 



Obfer-vatkns to be made on Secondary Mountains. 

 1. To determine with precifion the diftinguifhing charac- 

 ters between primitive and fecondary mountains. This is 

 difficult, efpccially in the genera found equally in primitive 

 mountains, fuch as flute, ferpentines, and fome kinds of 

 trapps and porphyry. With regard to the calcareous, a 

 granulated frafture feems to chara&erife the primitive. M. 

 Fichtcl, however, doubts this principle, and believes that 

 there are fecondary granulated, calcareous, and compact 

 primitives, 



3. Is it certain, as Dolomieu afferts, that in fecondary 

 mountains there are no ftrata compofed entirely of granu- 

 lated and cryftalhfcd ftoncs ? 



3. Tq 



