406 ON SIPHONS AND JETS OF WATEH. 



and seems already increased to almost double the quantity in a given 

 time ; and I think it is now less replete with calcareous earth, 

 approaching gradually to an exact correspondence with St. Alk- 

 mund's well, as it probably has its origin between the same strata 

 of earth." 



As many mountains bear incontestable marks of having been forcibly 

 raised up by some power beneath them ; and other mountains, and 

 even islands, have been lifted up by subterraneous fires in our own 

 .times, we may safely reason on the same supposition in respect to 

 all other great elevations of ground. Proofs of these circumstances 

 are to be seen on both sides of this part of the country : whoever 

 will inspect, with the eye of a philosopher, the lime-mountain at 

 Breedon, on the edge of Leicestershire, will not hesitate a moment 

 in pronouncing, that it has been forcibly elevated by some powers 

 beneath it ; for it is of a conical form with the apex cut off, and the 

 strata, which compose its central parts, and which are found nearly 

 horizontal in the plain, are raised almost perpendicularly, and 

 placed on their edges, while those on each side decline like the sur. 

 face of the hill; so that this mountain may well be represented by 

 a bur made by forcing a bodkin through several parallel sheets of 

 paper. At Router, or Eagle-stone, in the Peak, several large 

 masses of grit stone are seen on the sides and bottom of the moun- 

 tain, which by tiieir form evince from what parts of the summit 

 they 'were broken off at the time it was elevated ; and the numerous 

 loose stones scattered about the plains in its vicinity, and half buried 

 in the earth, must have been thrown out by explosions, and prove 

 the volcanic origin of the mountain. Add to this the vast beds of 

 toad stone or lava in many parts of this county, so accurately des- 

 cribed, and so well explained by Mr.Whitehurst, in his Theory of 

 the Formation of the Earth. 



Now as all great elevations of ground have been thus raised by 

 subterraneous fires, and in a long course of time their summits have 

 been worn away, it happens, that some of the more interior strata 

 of the earth are exposed naked on the tops of mountains ; and that 

 in general those strata which lie uppermost, or nearest to the sum- 

 mit of the mountain, are the lowest in the contiguous plains, This 

 will be readily conceived if the bur, made by thrusting a bodkin 

 through several parallel sheets of paper, had a part of its apex cut 

 off by a pen-knife, and is so weli enplalned by Mr. Michel!, in UH 



