596 THE UNIVERSE. 



movement continue at a uniform rate, in 1200 years parts 

 of the bottom of the sea, now covered with fifty fathoms of 

 water, will begin to emerge and become dry land." 



Darwin and many other authors have affirmed that some 

 very extensive regions of South America were formerly the 

 theatre of slow and progressive upheavals, which gave birth 

 to the plains of Patagonia, all over which are scattered re- 

 cent marine shells, bearing eloquent testimony to the youth 

 of these realms. 



It is to the ancient continent that the loftiest eminences 

 of the globe belong. It was thought that Chimborazo, in 

 South America, rose above every other ; but since a more 

 accurate study has been made of the Himalaya range, which 

 lords it over the chain of Thibet, and towers to a height of 

 above 29,000 feet, 1 men have been forced to greet it as the 

 king of the mountain chains. 



Yet, notwithstanding its positive height, this imposing 

 mass forms a scarcely perceptible elevation on the surface 

 of the globe. An attempt has been made, in works on ge- 

 ology, to give an idea of this fact by repeating that the 

 loftiest mountains on the earth produce on it asperities 

 comparable to those of an orange. But the comparison is 

 far too forced, for the highest mountain chains on the 

 globe only form on its surface projections equal to those 

 of a grain of sand (say Mh of an inch) on a sphere six 

 feet in diameter. 



When we revert to the vast commotions which took place 

 at the upheaval of mountains, and to their geological con- 

 stitution, we feel at once that their lofty summits must pre- 



1 The Kaurisankar, or Mount Everest, is 29,002 feet high. 



