MOUNTAINS AS TYPES OF ANTIQUITY. 385 



Hitherto we have confined our observations to the 

 aspect of mountains in their structural capacity ; we 

 now propose to take a brief survey of their history, 

 subsequent to their upheaval. 



Mountains have usually been regarded as the very 

 types of antiquity, solidity, and everlasting endurance : 

 so that the expressions " as old as the hills, " or " immo- 

 vable as the mountains, " have become proverbial. 

 Nevertheless scientific observation teaches us that it is 

 necessary to regard such phrases merely as so many 

 figures of speech; for in very truth, from the moment 

 of their upheaval the process of disintegration began 

 and has ever since been going on without intermis- 

 sion, and it is easy to show that the law of change 

 has constantly operated upon them, not one whit less 

 remorselessly than it has done and is doing, upon 

 everything that exists on earth ; thus, time " that 

 turneth all to dust " is slowly but not the less surely 

 wearing away the everlasting hills, till eventually it 

 will again reduce them to the level of the plain. 



The process by which this is being effected is known 

 as Denudation. 



" You may deem a well known mountain form (says Professor 

 Geikie) perfect and well nigh eternal. Perfect it may be, 

 in the majesty of its mass, and the symmetry of its sweep- 

 ing lines; but eternal! no. Climb its sides; and you find 

 proof on every hand that the great World-Sculptor is not 

 done with it; and that in spite of its look of placid rest, it 

 receives a fresh chiselling every year." * 



The operations of Nature, the Professor proceeds to 



* Mountain Architecture, a Lecture delivered in the City Hall, 

 Glasgow, by Professor Sir Archibald Geikie, 27th January 1876. 

 Published 1877, p. 19. 



VOL. II. 25 



