

PARALLEL CHAINS. 



regarded as the creation of a single mighty convulsive 

 throe of Nature, or whether they are supposed to have 

 been gradually pushed up by forces working from 

 beneath to their present height. The fact that they 

 have forced their way up through these overlying 

 strata is unquestionable. Personally however, we think 

 the balance of probabilities leads strongly to the sup- 

 position that each of the great mountain ranges of the 

 w r orld were the result of some vast and simultaneous 

 extrusion of matter along their chains, which has taken 

 place comparatively recently from a geological point 

 of view: and that this upheaval would seem to be the 

 work of a single operation and not that of a number 

 of desultory efforts spread over long periods of time. It is 

 this latter hypothesis alone which we are desirous of 

 combating, and we shall proceed to give reasons 

 for this our belief. 



A reference to the map will show that the main 

 ridges of the great mountain chains of the world are 

 drawn in more or less continuous lines. It is true that 

 there are frequently several distinct ridges, forming 

 parts of the same chain, but if so, they are almost 

 always drawn parallel to each other, indicating that 

 the forces of upheaval were uniformly acting in the 

 same direction. These facts seem to us to furnish a 

 very strong argument in favour of the supposition that 

 the whole movement was a simultaneous one, and not 

 a series of detached movements made at different 

 times. Had these great ranges been constructed bit 

 by bit, at various epochs, this striking regularity of 

 form could hardly have occurred by chance, repeated 

 as it is in all of the principal mountain ranges on each 

 of the great continents. Then there is this peculiar 



