292 LIFE OF HORACE BENEDICT DE SAUSSURE 



In my youth, when I had as yet crossed only a few of the Alpine 

 passes, I imagined myself to have mastered the facts and their general 

 relations. I even delivered, in 1764, 1 a lecture on mountain structure 

 in which I set forth these conclusions. But since repeated journeys 

 in different portions of the chain have furnished me with additional 

 facts, I have recognised that one might almost maintain that the 

 most constant feature of the Alps is their variety. 



In fact, if in place of considering my whole Travels, those described 

 in these volumes are alone taken into account, it will be at once noted 

 that the order in which the different rocks are placed is infinitely 

 varied. In one place the outer ranges are limestone, in another 

 magnesian. Here the central and loftiest peaks are solid granite ; 

 there they are micaceous limestone schists ; in one place we find 

 magnesian rocks, in another gneiss. If one notes the disposition of 

 the strata, they prove to be in one place horizontal, in another vertical, 

 in one place inclined in the same direction as the slope of the mountain, 

 in another in the contrary direction. 



Still it will be noted that in general the dip of the strata follows 

 the direction of the longitudinal valleys and of the mountain ridges, 

 and that these valleys, as well as the mountain ranges, have a general 

 direction of east to west or north-east to south-west. It will also be noted 

 that the strata of the more recent formations are, as a rule, inclined 

 towards and resting against the more ancient massifs, except where 

 they are reversed, or inclined in the opposite direction to the mountain 

 slopes. 



But a feature which is universal is the mass of debris in the form 

 of blocks, fragments, pudding stone, sandstone, and sand, either piled 

 together and forming mountains or hills, or else scattered on the 

 exterior of the range, or even on the plains lying at the base of the 

 Alps, which bears witness to the violent and sudden retreat of the 

 waters. 



We recognise, then, in the Alps the certain proof of the catastrophe, 

 or last scene, in the great drama of the revolutions of the globe. But 

 we see only uncertain and doubtful signs of the preceding events, apart 

 from the proofs of quiet crystallisations in the most remote epochs 

 which preceded the creation of animals, of deposits or sediments in 

 the periods which followed this epoch, and some evidence of violent 

 movements such as the formation of fissures, of pudding stone, the 

 fracture of shells, and the displacement of strata. But I do not 

 propose to enter here into any details of the Theory. I only wish to 



1 The date given is 1774. This is obviously one of the many errata in the 

 concluding volumes. D. W. F. 



