THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



all Switzerland, the valley of the Rhone from Lyons to the sea, 

 as well as to several parts of Italy, Corsica, and Sardinia, which, 

 not exhibiting any of the Parisian deposits, must have been 

 brought above the level of the waters by the Pyrenean elevation, 

 which produced the thirteenth system, and must have afterwards 

 sunk to receive the subsequent deposits. 



The Corsican system is manifested also by elevations and dis- 

 memberments, which have given their ultimate form to the 

 mountains, which rising between the valleys of the Saone, the 

 Loire, and the Allier, have directions from north to south. In 

 these countries all the secondary strata are disturbed, and around 

 them are formed the fresh- water deposits of Auvergne and the 

 Loire. It was along the direction of this disturbance that were 

 subsequently placed all the volcanic cones of the chain of 

 the Puys. 



Traces of this Corsican system are found in the mountains which 

 connect the Alps with the Jura, in spite of the dismemberments 

 which the succeeding catastrophes produced. There exists also a 

 great number of chains having the same direction in the eastern 

 and southern parts of Europe, in Tuscany, the Papal States, 

 Istria, Albania, Greece, and so on. The islands of Corsica and 

 Sardinia are also arranged from north to south, and present 

 along the coast tertiary deposits in horizontal strata of the same 

 age as those which are found in all the parts of France above 

 mentioned. 



219. XV. SYSTEM OF WESTERN ALPS. If the Swiss Alps and 

 those of Savoy and Dauphine present traces of catastrophes which 

 took place since the elevation of the system of Cote d'Or, it is not 

 less evident that the actual profile of the chain has a date much 

 more recent. In fact the middle strata of the tertiary system, 

 which were only raised above the waters after the date of the 

 Corsican system, are now elevated sometimes to vast altitudes, as 

 well as the Jurassic and cretaceous formations beneath them. The 

 only strata found horizontal are the upper tertiary. Thus it 

 follows that this chain of mountains, which includes the most 

 lofty in Europe, were not raised to their present elevation from 

 the common level of the continent until after the deposition of the 

 middle tertiary strata. 



The matter which broke through the crust of the earth in this 

 catastrophe, was the particular species of granite of which Mont 

 Blanc and Monte Rosa are formed. A multitude of granitic 

 islands in different parts of the continent are also formed of it, 

 on the flanks of which appear inclined the tertiary, cretaceous, 

 and Jurassic strata. These granites at an early epoch in the pro- 

 gress of the science, when the principles which determine the 

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