MOUNTAIN-CHAINS. 61 



of solid matter may already have been several miles in 

 thickness, yet this in relation to the bulk of the earth would 

 hold but the proportion of the paper on the surface of a 

 twelve-inch globe. As the fluid mass of the earth continued 

 to contract, there would of course be a great stress or 

 crushing-power exerted on the crust, both by its own 

 gravity and that of the air which surrounded it, and about 

 this period it appears to have given way over the greatest 

 portion of the globe, producing enormous rents and fractures, 

 seen in every country in the faults and dislocations of these 

 primitive and transition strata, some of which were driven 

 up by the downward force of others, and left in a perpen- 

 dicular position, some overlapping each other, &c. ; but 

 the greatest effect of this convulsion appears to have been 

 produced by the rocking or rolling surface of the sub- 

 existing fluid world, forming gigantic waves, which, by 

 meeting in opposite directions and thrusting upwards the 

 strata to a great height, formed the mighty mountain-chains 

 of the now-existing earth, which raise their lofty pinnacles 

 above the clouds. Now, these mountains may at first 

 thought appear too ponderous and extensive to be thrown 

 up in this way ; but by inspecting the engraved section of a 

 part of the globe (fig. 13), it will be seen how very insigni- 

 ficant a mountain is when compared with the whole world. 

 This section is through Asia from the Persian Grulf to the 

 Yellow Sea, and embraces the highest land on the whole 

 face of the earth, and is drawn on a scale in which the 

 earth is represented by a globe sixteen inches diameter. 

 The rugged and peaked tops of these mountains would be 

 formed by the great fractured masses of the broken strata 

 being thrust upwards and there resting against each other ; 

 but who can describe the chasms and hollows which must 

 have resulted when the great wave of melted earth had sub- 

 sided to its level under one of these huge mountain masses ? 

 or the dreadful abyss into which at some future time it and 

 the surrounding country may fall, if they have not already 

 been filled up by the sinking of the surrounding strata. 

 Some of these great waves, when thrust upwards, forced 

 their way right through the point of the mountain and 



