Dr. Fitton's Notes on the History of English Geology. 269 



' tracts of mountainous countries, together with the parts ad- 



* jacent, throughout the whole vyorld*. 



' From this formation of the earth, it wilt follow, that we 

 ' ought to meet with the same kinds of earths, stones, and ini- 

 ' nerals, appearing at the surface, in long narroia slips, and 

 ' lying parallel to the greatest rise of any long ridges of moun- 

 ' tains ; and so, in fact, we find them. The Andes, in South 



* America, has a chain of volcanos that extend in length above 

 ' 5000 miles : these volcanos, in all probability^, are all de- 



* rived from the same stratum. Parallel to the Andes is the 

 ' Sierra, another long I'idge of mountains, that run between 

 ' the Andes and the sea :' and ' these two ridges of moun- 



* tains run within sight of one another, and almost equally : 



* for above a thousand leagues together f being each at a me- 



* diiim above twenty leagues wide. 



< The same thing is found to obtain in North America also. 

 ' The great lakes, which give rise to the river St. Lawrence, 



* are kept up by a long ridge of mountains, that run nearly 

 ' parallel to the eastern coast. In descending from these to- 

 ' wards the sea, the same sets of strata, and in the same order, 



* are generally met with throughout the greatest part of their 

 < length J. 



' In Great Britain we have another instance to the same pur- 



* pose, where the direction of the r-idge varies about a pointfrom 

 ' due north and south, lying nearly from N. by E. to S. by ?F.§ 



* There are many more instances of this to be met with in the 

 ' world, if we may judge from circumstances, which make 

 ' it highly probable that it obtains in a great number of places; 



* and in several they seem to put it almost out of doubt. 



' The reader is not to suppose, however, that, in any in- 

 ' stances, the highest rise of the ridge, and the inclination 

 ' of the strata from thence to the countries on each side, is 



* perfectly uniform, for they have frequently very considerable 

 ' inequalities, and these inequalities are sometimes so great 

 ' that the strata are bent, for some small distance, even the 

 ' contrary way from the general inclination of them. This 



* often makes it difficult to trace the appearance I have been re- 

 ' lating, which, without a general knowledge of the fossil bodies 

 ' of a large tract of country, it is hardly possible to do. 



' At considerable distances from large ridges of mountains, 



* the strata, for the most part, assume a situation nearly level; 



• ' Fig. 3. (Plate II.) represents a section of a set of strata, lying in the 



* situation just descrihed. Tiie section is supposed to be made at rigiit 



* angles to the length oCtlie rid^^e, and |)erpcn(iiciiiar to the horizon.' 



\ 'Sec Acosta's Natiu'al History of the Indies.' 

 \ ' See Lewis I']vans's Map, and Account of North America.' 

 § ' Of this,' Mr. Michell adds in a note, ' I could give many iindotibteJ 

 [iioofs, if it would not loo far exceed the limits of my present design,' 



