40 ON THE GENERAL DISPOSITION OF THE 



that separates Norway from Sweden is steepest on its 

 western side ; as are the chains of the Oural, the 

 Ghauts, the Cordillera, and the mountains of Syria. 

 The mountains of Kamtschatka are, on the contrary, 

 said by Pallas to be steepest on the eastern sides ; 

 while those which separate Silesia from Bohemia, the 

 Meissner in Hessia, a considerable portion of the 

 Pyrenees, and some of the mountains of Armenia and 

 Caucasus, are described as being most abrupt in 

 their northern declivities. In Scotland, there is no 

 predominant tendency to be traced any where ; 

 although the cause from which such tendencies do 

 actually arise, exists in that country. 



Such are the facts ; and on examining the causes, 

 this irregularity is justified. It would require four 

 arrangements to render an universally prevalent decli- 

 vity true ; and neither of these exists. The ridges 

 ought to have a predominant direction, that direction 

 should be the same as that of the strata, the dips of 

 these strata should be always to the same point of the 

 horizon, and all mountains should consist of stratified 

 rocks. 



It is only requisite to determine the inclination of 

 the strata in stratified mountains, and their greatest 

 declivities will appear. It is necessarily found at the 

 side of the elevated edges ; as, on this quarter, they 

 are most subject to disintegration. There cannot 

 therefore be a predominant declivity, either in the 

 cases of horizontal or vertical strata, or where the 

 direction of the strata crosses the line of the ridge ; as 

 it does in some cases. It could not be found univer- 

 sally in one quarter of the horizon, unless all chains 

 had the same direction and all strata the same incli- 

 nation ; nor could it even bear a respect to the direc- 

 tions of individual ridges, unless the inclination of 



